


Precious law

by CMDAK



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types
Genre: Based on Young James Bond, F/M, M/M, Protective James Bond, Protective Q, protective R
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-05-25 05:01:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14969654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CMDAK/pseuds/CMDAK
Summary: There were always rumors of a paradise island for criminals. A myth, the intelligence agencies always claimed, but James Bond knew better. And his latest mission forces him to go down memory lane and revisit places and people that he liked to pretend that he had forgotten.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I recently started reading the Young James Bond series and 'Hurricane Gold' is the perfect book that begged for a revisit from an older James Bond. You don't necessarily have to know the book to understand what's going on.

“I know where he could be.” It was amazing what little it took to silence a room filled with the most powerful people in the world that liked to stay behind the curtains and play with everyone’s strings.

 

“Agent, this is not the time to speculate. We have—”

 

“With all due respect, this is the perfect time for that,” James interrupted his superior, managing to hold the woman’s glare for a few seconds before lowering his head. “I know of this place, a supposed paradise for all criminals that can.”

 

“We’ve all heard of the mythical Lagrimas Negras, 007, but that’s what it is: a myth, a legend; the modern day El Dorado,” the head of KGB said in perfect English and looking perfectly smug towards the Beijing representative.

 

“It’s real and it’s in the Caribbean,” James insisted, closing his eyes and finding himself back on those cursed shores, young, hurt, scared, confused, in the company of an insane dying bank robber, and with those disgusting things growing in his arm and back. “I’ve been there when I was fourteen and trust me, it’s impossible to forget where it is.”

 

The Mossad operative fixed him with her brown eyes and stared at him for a good few seconds before leaning back in her leather chair and huffing. “You speak the truth, or at least you are convinced that you’re speaking the truth,” she said slowly. “Back then, the island could have been hidden because technology wasn’t that advanced, but today? We have satellite pictures of every place in the world and there’s no island that we don’t know about in there.”

 

James smiled at her but then turned his attention to the CIA agent that was trying to blend with the background. “You know where it is, my friend, because America used to own it before El Huracan bought it from you.”

 

“I don’t,” the agent said a bit too fast and getting every other person in the room to turn their attention on him – James wondered if this man was new at his job or if he was simply that dumb. “That’s nothing more than pure speculation. Can’t MI6 teach its agents not to speak out of turn?”

 

“Documents related to your navy’s Pacific fleet and Jack Stone,” James said simply and the CIA agent flinched, cursing under his breath. “Shall I continue with my speculations so you don’t get in trouble with your bosses?”

 

“Whatever you say, I cannot neither confirm nor infirm,” the man grumbled under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. “But know that the USA has the exact same satellite pictures as the rest of you and there’s nothing but water where once this supposed island once stood.”

 

With the man’s begrudged blessing, James started his tale. He didn’t give them too many details about how his adventure started because no one really cared – except Miss Moneypenny and Bill Tanner and maybe M, but he was going to be interrogated in private later because it was important for MI6 to look like they knew everything about their agents and especially about the loose cannon that he was – but explained in as much detail as he could about how he ended up on the mythical island and what he found there.

 

He told them about El Huracan and how his father had been the only _slave_ that survived the military incursion, about how he had bought the island for chicken scratch from the silly Americans that were up to their necks in debt, about how he had wanted to groom him to take over the island as he didn’t have any children of his own and about the man’s Rat Ran on which he cheated in order to get out and about their deal – which he now broke. Still, he was pretty sure that if El Huracan was still alive, he would understand why he did what he did and drop Blofeld faster than he dropped those files that officially never existed because hurricane gold honestly existed for him and he didn’t want to bring the wrath of the old Mexican gods on his little paradise island.

 

“Ridiculous,” the CIA agent grumbled, but everyone in the room knew that they had a better chance at the truth if they trusted the British agent that went AWOL at least three times in a month if it got the job done the way he wanted. “Yes, we had one such island at one point in our dark history, but we never sold it. The ocean reclaimed it and not only do you all have satellite pictures to back my claim up, but we also sent countless ships that got sunk by bad weather.”

 

“We’ve long since learned that weather can, in fact, be controlled by humans,” M spoke up on behalf of her agent. “If you all think that we can’t trust 007’s memory, remember that the world is full with criminals; finding one and applying just the right amount of pressure to find out how to get to this island can’t be that hard. Hell, maybe even find a way to turn the tables on the nanomachines SPECTRE managed to inject in half of the world and simply _follow_ them.”

 

Everyone nodded except for the CIA agent who tugged on his tie. “You don’t understand; this place might be the real life Bermuda Triangle. Ships, be they sent by us or not, simply disappear. Their navigation systems go haywire and then their communications get shut off and then they just disappear off the face of the earth. We might have lost three ships full of soldiers and three submarines just this decade to that goddamned place. Do you really want to waste time tracking some nanomachines down only for them to be deactivated in a flash?”

 

“So we’ll trust the memory of a middle aged spy that has a well-known drinking problem,” the Beijing agent concluded and everyone gave a short nod. “Beijing will give you their best age—”

 

“007 will go alone and we will continue combing the world for Blofeld,” M interjected. “Any major move on our end is bound to attract unwanted attention and do we really want to spoke the SPECTRE head and whoever is in charge of this island into doing something to cripple us and, by association, the rest of the world,” she explained as she would to children. “Are we all on the same page now?” They were and although no one was happy to put all of their trust in an agent they didn’t control, it wasn’t like they had an actual choice in this other than waste time and resources with finding a criminal that _might_ help them, so they all nodded begrudgingly. “Good. 007, you leave immediately so report to Major Boothroyd.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the story is complete, I will post twice a week - on Monday and Friday.

People were as reluctant as ever when it came to taking him to the island, James needing three days until he found the right person and then it cost MI6 a ridiculous amount of money to actually get him to agree to ferry him to the middle of nowhere. The ocean too was as unforgiving and as relentless in its anger as he remember it to be, the ship almost sinking twice before the ferryman gave up on trying to get him to land and forcing him on gunpoint to hop in a dinghy lifeboat and continue his journey on his own as this was a one-way trip and he feared what might happen to him if he brought James back to mainland.

 

“If you make it on your own, then good for you, but you won’t get any help from me beyond this point,” the ferryman shouted and fired his gun twice in James’ direction when he tried to row back.

 

Not really having any other choice, James started to fight with the boat and the waves to move forward – or where he thought forward was. With neither stars to guide him nor any landmarks, he could only rely on his gut instincts and become a temporary believer as he prayed as hard as he could to every deity he knew. But divinity refused to prove that it was real and James’ boat got crushed twenty minutes into his rowing and a large wave pushed him down under, the relief he felt when he actually caught sight of a rock ended up being short lived because he smashed his head against another one and he lost consciousness.

 

He saw his mother and father and himself as the innocent child he was once before Eaton, the Navy, and MI6 happened – like he always did – but he now knew to fear this vision. If, back when he was still nothing more than an innocent child who had the unbelievable back luck of bumping into dangerous situations without really trying, he’d run towards them and welcome the numbness that crept up his spine the closer he got to them, refusing to accept that they were then, now he struggled to wake up and demanded that they kept away from him. It wasn’t his time… It couldn’t be his time, yet! He still had the world to save, a car to pay, an old Quartermaster to annoy into an early retirement, and he still had like half of MI6 to try to have a relationship with.

 

“Easy, easy,” someone whispered in a posh voice as something cold was rested on his forehead, soft hands caressing his cheek. “No one’s here but me and trust me, you don’t want me to go away and leave you like this,” the stranger insisted when James continued to struggle.

 

“I can’t die,” James growled lowly, finally managing to push himself up and accidentally headbutt the stranger without realizing it. “Not now, at least,” he continued as he finally started to understand that he really was on that same rocky beach from his childhood and that he wasn’t staring at an insane bank robber whimpering in pain at his feet, but at a drenched young man with wild hair and colourful clothes that he never saw before. “Who are you?”

 

“Your unfortunate saviour,” the man said, continuing to whine and rub the place where he was hit. “Remind me to just tie you up the next time I save you from drowning and keep my distance.” He tilted his head back to glare at him as he said that and James decided that he wouldn’t mind if this young man did that. “What are you doing here anyway? _How_ did you get here? I know you’re not supposed to be here, so you better have a damned good excuse.”

 

Was this the new ruler of the island or was he a criminal? He looked…too innocent to be either of those, but it he would be a complete idiot to actually be surprised if that did turn out to be the case after everything he’d seen in his life by now. “How do you know that I’m not supposed to be here? It’s just an island and you don’t have any extra arms, so this place has to be safe.”

 

After shaking his head like he gave up trying to understand what he was saying, the man pointed to his left. “Well, for starters, _that_ is still going on out there.” James turned his head to see a storm raging just a few meters away from the shore, proving M’s weather control theory because the weather on the beach itself was sunny and warm. “Secondly, you ended up here instead of the front of the island and thirdly, I haven’t been presented with a ridiculous problem that’s meant to keep me busy until tomorrow when they’d pretend that you’ve always been on the island and I simply didn’t notice you.”

 

If the owner of the island was trying to keep him out of the loop by hiding when newcomers arrived, then that meant that he was a captive. Or maybe he was someone born on the island and El Huracan took a liking to him for whatever reason and decided not to reveal that his parents were criminals after disposing of them – he was much too white to be a descendant of the guards he had seen when he was a child and El Huracan was the kind of person who wouldn’t let something like rich parents who paid him to be safe get between him and what he wanted.

 

“What’s your name? What are you doing here? Why did you save me if you say that I’m not supposed to be here?” James started to bombard the young man with questions, turning the charm up to 11 when he gently cupped his face to make sure that he didn’t leave a mark on his saviour and possible helper and noticed that the man blushed. “I see no tail, but I’m still not sure that you aren’t a fabled merman.”

 

James’ remark made the young man smile a little and James was surprised to find himself thinking that the world lit up a little – then again, he did just hit his head, so he might have a contusion.

 

“That line is something I honestly never heard before,” the man said and James needed a second to decide that he was being honest and not sarcastic. “Everyone just calls me Q, so you can call me that as well and I live here.” Nothing in the way he carried himself or in the way he talked hinted that he was afraid or lying and he was making no move to put distance between James and himself, so James continued to caress his face and make note of how bright and smart his green eyes looked. “Who are you, stranger? And, again, what are you doing here?”

 

“Bond. James Bond.” Q moved his lips without making a noise, like this name was the strangest one he had ever heard before and James found that hard to believe given his very British and very posh accent. “I’m a fisherman by trade and I’ve heard that one could catch the biggest and most delicious fish around these parts, so I hired someone to bring me to the perfect spot. However, it seems that I either ran out of money in the middle of the ride or they had other plans and the little boat they gave me stood no chance against the raging waters.”

 

“You don’t look like a fisherman,” Q said slowly, not shy at all when it came to burying his nose in James’ neck to smell him. “You don’t smell like one either.” James tensed as Q continued to carefully study him. “But, for whatever reason, I feel like nothing bad happens if I pretend that you’re a fisherman on vacation,” he added and flashed James a smile, right before he heard someone call his name. “Hide in those bushes over there and don’t make a single sound,” he instructed James, pushing him in the right direction. “I’ll come back soon.”

 

“Wait—”

 

“No waiting! Go, now,” Q hissed and pushed him in the right direction before running towards the voices. “I’m here, I’m here. What’s wrong?”

 

From his hiding place, James made out the newcomers that were very white and wearing camouflage, making them completely different from the guards he had met so long ago with their natural tanned skin and traditional Mayan or Aztec attires. He also didn’t like how heavily armed all three of them were or the hard glare their apparent leader was giving Q while his hand rested on the butt of his semi-automatic, fingers twitching.

 

“We’ve got word from one of ships that someone tried to make their way here without an invitation and we were all worried that they might have,” their leader said and started to look around.

 

Q snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t think something as simple as a thought could make it beyond the storm, let alone an entire, living human being,” he said. “There’s no one here, so you can go check the rest of the island and leave me be.”

 

The man grabbed Q’s arm with as much gentleness as he could, straining himself to smile. “I think it would be best if you returned to the village until the code is lifted.” He signalled the other two guards to look around while he tugged Q away, Q winking in James’ direction before starting to whine as loudly as he could about being too cold and then about not wanting to dry up because he loved the way the ocean water made his clothes cling to him, forcing the other two guards to drop their search to convince him to return to the city on his own without being picked up either bridal style or thrown over one of their shoulders.

 

James carefully listened until he couldn’t hear anyone talking and then he finally sighed, lying back down on the ground, feeling dizzy. He was pretty sure that he had a serious concussion, realizing he had a bunch of leaves around his head to stop the bleeding from the numerous cuts – but the pain was very dull, so whatever Q did, it was magic – and he had no weapons or the gadgets that the Major had given him. Plus, he didn’t know what to make of Q and of the new guards and he was pretty sure that whoever ruled the island now would be less inclined to not have him executed since he wasn’t that young, cute child with admirable guts.

 

“Fisherman Bond, are you still here?” A woman asked and James started to hold his breath, carefully moving his hand on the ground in search from something to use as a weapon. “Q was really antsy about a fisherman by the name of Bond being hurt and left alone here, so he sent me to nurse him back to life if he’s still alive,” she murmured, sticking her head directly in the bushes and grinning at James. “Blond, blue-eyed, bleeding hunk of a man… Yup, you’re fisherman Bond. Dare I ask how you can afford such an expensive suit and shoes?”

 

“I’m a very good fisherman,” James said without missing a beat, quickly studying the woman before him – petite, redhead, green eyes, and, most importantly, no guns hidden under her clothes although she could still be either an angel of death or someone with a bag filled with instruments of torture so James wasn’t exactly relieved. “You have me at a disadvantage, miss.”

 

“That I do,” she said, grinning and kneeling near his head. “So, are you here because you’re a thief, murderer, bank robber, cartel leader, terrorist leader, cult leader, or did you dabble in a bit of company or country espionage and now everyone is after you?”

 

“I don’t know what you’re…” he started, only to trail off and hiss when the woman put a bit too much rubbing alcohol over his cuts. “I’m a simple fisherman,” he insisted, meeting her glare. “What are you?”

 

“Q’s friend, sister, assistant, and nurse,” she said and stuck a bright light in his eyes. “Follow it.” After blinding him for about two minutes, she pulled him up right and opened the rest of his destroyed jacket, pulling out a stethoscope. “Keep quiet and breathe deeply until I tell you to stop.” She waited until he became dizzier and then turned to dig through her bag. “When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?”

 

“A week ago,” he said, but she still stuck a needle in him for good measure. “Your bedside manners are lacking.” If anyone in Medical saw just how cooperative and un-flirty he was with this woman, they’d hire her on the spot and make her his personal nurse.

 

She flashed him her perfectly white teeth in a mockery of a smile. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t do my best when I’m dealing with a criminal.” She stuck another needle in his arm with no explanation and then threw some clothes at James’ head. “Get dressed and then follow me.”

 

“I’m not exactly in the perfect shape for an entertaining Rat Run, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t lead me to my doom,” James said and then instantly regretted it when he saw how terrified the woman looked at him – not to mention the fact that he slipped up like a rookie agent that never even got to the middle of their first mission.

 

“How do you know about that?” She asked carefully, slowly reaching back into her bag.

 

Maybe he could still play the fisherman card. “What? That’s something real here? I was just joking.”

 

But the woman wasn’t falling for it and before James could even blink, she had a gun that she pulled out of nowhere – her bag; how could he have considered her to be unarmed when he saw the large bag? Damned concussion – pointed at him. “You cannot know just how dangerous rat running is here unless you’ve been here before, so who are you? And if you try to lie, I’ll put a bullet through that pretty little head of yours.”

 

“You present yourself as Q’s sister and yet you’d kill me even though he asked you to nurse me back to health?” It seemed he ended up playing some for a poker no matter what he did and the stake was always his life.

 

“I could say you were dead when I got here, but that will have Q upset with himself for abandoning you,” the woman growled, lowering her gun for a fraction of a second before lifting it back up again. “But if I tell him you ran away…”

 

“So he won’t search for me, good,” James played his last card and closed his eyes. “You have a good hold on the gun, but your hand is shaking and you look like you want to turn away, so could you do me a favour and press it against my forehead to make sure that you don’t miss? Bleeding to death is rather a painful death, and I don’t think I did anything to you to earn that.”

 

He didn’t feel the cold barrel of a gun or the seething pain that followed the bullet, but he did hear the woman cursing. “Definitely espionage of some form,” she concluded as she pocketed the gun. “Stop wasting time manipulating me and get dressed; the guards are bound to be back any minute now that Q is under the ruler’s watchful eyes.”


	3. Chapter 3

The large room had been covered in bright pink wallpaper that had little golden crowns all over it, with frilly light pink drapes framing the large windows and a red carpet covering the stone ground. To say that it clashed with how the castle looked on the outside was an understatement, but that’s exactly how she wanted the place to look like. In fact, if it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle, she’d tear down the entire castle and built a new one that looked exactly like a Barbie house since she just loved it when people underestimated her and let down their guard. But as things were, no one dared to complain about how kitschy everything was and it was pretty entertaining to see the way people cringed when they set foot inside her home for the first time and how hard they were struggling to come up with compliments.

 

“I’m done, thank you for the meal,” Q announced as he pushed the plate away from him and even though he was on the other end of the long table, she could see that he had barely touched his food.

 

“Sit down and eat,” she said softly, waving her hand towards the door to get the guards to cover it when Q took a step in its direction. “You’re too thin as it is and I’ve heard that the mainland is currently being ravaged by a real powerful hurricane that’s making its way towards us and I’d hate to have someone shove rocks in your pockets to make sure that you don’t take off when the wind picks up.”

 

Q slumped back in the chair and started to play with his food. “It doesn’t matter how fat or how thin I am if I’m outside when a hurricane hits,” he grumbled.

 

Now Q was her favourite servant and by far, the best thing she could have ever inherited. He was smart in the right departments, he was easy on the eye, he was oblivious of what was going on around him, and if he wasn’t curious about the outside world like some kind of a Disney princess, he would have been perfect. But no, Q just had to want to see the world with his own eyes, learn new techniques from actual teachers, visit museums, buy books from bookshops, and all the other boring and annoying things that tourists do. She thought that Q might even want to try to fall in love for someone which was even more of a pain in the ass in her honest opinion, but she did try to make things better for him on the island.

 

She caught wind of a famous professor that was on the run from this one country she didn’t bother to remember the name of and in an attempt to quench Q’s thirst for knowledge she offered the man a free stay on the island and a guarantee that no one would dare to touch him or his family. Unfortunately, the man had already been poisoned prior to her getting in contact with him, so he died just two weeks and four lessons into his island stay which just depressed her young genius.

 

She then made a museum for him, but she couldn’t use anything from the island because, by now, Q could have easily been considered an expert when it came to Mayans. Easily fixed, of course, since she did have an entire island full of all kinds of criminals who were more than eager to re-live their golden days, but her plan backfired when the museum only made Q want to see the world even more. Things became worse when she had a few cafes renovated to look like the ones from Rome, London, and Paris, so she decided that it would be for the best if she didn’t attempt to find someone for him to help him with his last problem – as, truthfully, she wasn’t dumb enough to trust anyone not to try to turn her genius against her and take over her island.

 

So now she was afraid that he might try to run and while she used the Rat Race to discourage everyone else from trying to reach the outside world just like El Huracan had done before her, she couldn’t show her true colours to the man that was keeping her island hidden, secure, and up and running by making him go through it – or see someone go through it – so she needed to have her most loyal guards hover around him at all times and employ a team of computer geeks to make sure Q didn’t do something to the storm program to allow him safe passage off the island.

 

“I just worry about you,” she said, waiting for one of her butlers to pull her chair back so she could make her way to the sulking Q. “I trust you were told that an uninvited person tried to reach us?” Q nodded, moving away before she could place her hands on his shoulders. “And this… I want to be sure that the island is safe for us, for you.”

 

“The guards should be done with their sweeping of my favourite part of the island, so can I go enjoy as much of the sun as I can before we get affected by the real weather?” Despite no longer being a teenager, Q could act very much like a brat and if he didn’t remind her of someone on top of being a genius, she would have slapped him each and every time he threw what she considered to be a fit. “Plus, if we were infiltrated, they’d probably be somewhere in the inner island by now and I really think you need to talk with the newest additions that have always been here and I just didn’t notice them to see if maybe they’re the ones that brought this possible misfortune on our doorstep.”

 

She hated not knowing things that directly affected her given that her entire world had been shattered when she was a child because she didn’t know what her parents were doing and she was forced to return here because of that. So her not knowing who it was that tried to make their way to the island, if they succeeded in their attempt, and for what reason, made her a little more than angry and jumpy, especially when Q proved to have more sense than her in regards to the matter without really trying.

 

“Then go,” she finally said, trying really hard not to flip the table or at least a chair – the ruler before her had always kept his cool as he was aware that any sign of weakness would cause a rebellion and that was the last thing you wanted when dealing with a crisis. “And don’t do anything stupid, Q. I really don’t have time – or patience – to deal with your antics.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos feed the muse as well as the soul.


	4. Chapter 4

Q did his best not to skip or run to his little piece of paradise near the beach just in case he was being followed. Busy as the city was, it would still be pretty easy to pinpoint him in a crowd because everyone walked around dressed in their best clothes and wearing their shiniest jewels while he was barefooted, dressed in a shirt that looked like someone had puked a rainbow on, and his brown hair stuck out in every direction because it had a mind of its own.

 

He made sure to stop and listen to his favourite band for a few minutes like he always did, popped in his favourite British café to get a thermos of his tea – okay, it was the only British thing on the island, but it didn’t matter – stopped by the only Italian restaurant to get  a double order of his favourites to go – making sure to be overly excited by one of his projects and make it sound harder than it already was to explain why he needed so much food – and exchanged a few pleasantries with the guests that always went out of their way to get his attention before actually heading to the beach.

 

Naturally, he didn’t take a direct route to the beach. He never did.

 

Since he was brought to the island when he was really young, he knew how to get from one side of the island to the other – with only one area that he had never set foot in, but that wasn’t the point – without being seen and without being obvious with where exactly he was going. He also had what he liked to think of as his own little private laboratory in which he worked on his own projects that almost no one knew about and it was there that he had R take James.

 

The closer he got to his little hut inside a cave, the giddier he became and he made sure to stop right before entering to force himself to calm down so he didn’t look overly excited and make a fool of himself. He was aware of how strange it was that he felt the way he did despite only knowing the man for a total of three hours, most of which he had been passed out and pretty much on the verge of dying, but he thought that this might have something to do with what El Huracan had told him a long time ago when one of the supposedly local young girls followed him everywhere he went and pushed him to the ground or hit his shoulder whenever he talked with anyone else of their age for more than five minutes.

 

He mentally went over a list of ‘symptoms’ multiple times since he had met James and found out that he had all of them. His stomach felt like it was filled with butterflies from the second he saw James, his heart felt like it was one beat away from jumping out of his chest, his train of thought got derailed whenever James came up, and his face warmed up whenever the man’s attention was on him – which, admittedly, only happened once but it had lasted like 10 minutes and in those minutes, Q had wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and smash their lips together.

 

Anyway, the bottom line was that he felt sexually attracted to James and this was the first time in his life he felt that and he was pretty sure that if they spent a little bit more time talking, he might actually feel something more for him and vice versa.

 

He knocked before gently opening the door, breaking out into a huge smile when his eyes landed on the bandaged up James sitting on the sofa that was usually covered in all sorts of gears, cogs, and blueprints. “R found you, good,” he muttered, stopping right in front of James, confused as to what to do with his hands because he wanted to run them over his head and face, but even he knew that it wouldn’t be acceptable to do that to what was essentially a stranger. “And you’re still alive which is even better.”

 

“Thank you for that vote of confidence, Q,” R grumbled from behind him, grabbing his thermos and putting his hand on James’ neck. “See? He even has a pulse, so I didn’t turn him into a zombie so please continue being an ungrateful little twat that’s going to just hate the chicken soup he gets the next time he catches a cold because he forgot to change out of his wet clothes due to a sudden bout of technology-related inspiration.”

 

Q instantly turned red and made to pull away, but James’ larger hand rested on top of his and froze him in place with a smile. “I’m glad to see that you’re okay. I didn’t really like the way those guards looked.”

 

“Oh, they’re… they’re fine. They’re nice if you get to know them and if you’re not causing any trouble,” Q stammered and _felt_ R roll her eyes behind him while groaning.

 

For her part, R thought that Q going through his first crush was beyond adorable and she wanted nothing more than to take out a camera and start snapping pictures of how happy and embarrassed he looked but on another level, it was sad. It was sad that the person who caught Q’s interest was someone like James Bond, a man that was very obviously hiding something and who clearly was on this island with his own agenda – all things that couldn’t bring about anything good.

 

In fact, the more she glared at James, the more confident R was that he was there to become the new ruler or he had been sent there by someone to weaken their defences enough for the island to be easily taken over and no matter which of those two options was the correct one, Q’s crush could only end in tears and – if she wasn’t careful and if she didn’t play her cards right – blood and even death.

 

As for what this so-called James Bond was actually feeling… Well, R couldn’t tell. The man was clearly older than Q and the way he held himself told novels about his love life and R didn’t really like the fact that he was gently caressing Q’s hand while talking in a hushed whisper about the weather like a proper English gentleman, acting like he had eyes only for him when, in fact, he was very obviously looking around the room and also keeping an eye on her.

 

“How long have you been here for?” Was the question that snapped R out if her sulking and she fisted her hand in her lap when she saw the way James was gently rubbing Q's arm, making sure that he was relaxed and that he was feeling safe which would ensure that he'd answer anything and everything. “If you don't mind me asking you that, of course; I’ve been told many times that I’m too curious for my own good.”

 

Q laughed – R wanted to say that there wasn't anything to laugh at – and shyly moved closer to James. “It’s quite alright, Mister Bond.”

 

“Call me James, please,” James practically purred, wrapping an arm around Q’s middle to draw him closer. “Mister Bond was my father—”

 

“Okay then, _James_ , why don’t we start asking the questions and then, after you give us truthful answers, we _maybe_ think about answering yours?” R finally intervened as she moved to Q’s other side to tug him away from James.

 

James and her locked eyes and they began a glaring contest, Q all but forgotten between them. She didn’t care that this was the most childish thing she could do or that Q muttered that he wasn’t a tug rope and that he’d appreciate it if she’d let him go because James wasn’t the bad guy there. Sure, she didn’t have any clear evidence to support the opposite of that, but it was proven time and time again that she was always right and there was no reason for her to believe that it will be different this time.

 

She felt really smug when James was the first to look away, but as she was just settling in her gloat, the right bastard had to start leaning towards his left which prompted Q to jump away like she burned him so he could rush to James’ side and keep him from falling to the ground.

 

“I got dizzy all of a sudden,” James said apologetically as he rested his head on Q’s chest.

 

R got up and went to one of the many medical kits Q had in his little hut not because he actually believed what James was saying, but because Q looked so terrified by the possibility of his new _friend_ dying that she really didn’t have any other choice.

 

“Other than this dizziness, please tell me if you feel one or more of the following: any type of headache or pressure in the head?” She asked dryly and James thought for a second before shaking his head which somehow prompted Q to start caressing the back of his neck and move around a bit to become even a better pillow. “Do you feel confused or like you’re in a fog?” James shook his head without hesitating. “Are you hearing any ringing in the ears, or do you feel nauseous?” Again, a negative answer and R had to hold back a grin because she got James where she wanted. “Tell me in as much detail as you can the last thirty minutes you remember before Q found you on the beach.”

 

James looked like he wanted to start to slowly clap but he had enough self-control to hold back and answer her question. Again, she had no way of knowing if he was telling the truth or not, but it sounded like he did because their ferrymen were all packing heat and they were also under strict orders to not let anyone near the island without receiving the okay from them first. No one cared if they suckered idiots into giving them all of their money as long as they didn’t actually deliver on their promise and James’ story went exactly like that – struck a deal with someone, than was backstabbed and abandoned in the middle of the ocean while their synthetic hurricane was fully raging.

 

Naturally, he threw in a whispered and shaky admission of fear – which felt extremely out of place for James – which prompted Q to lead him to the makeshift bed he had in there, help him lie down, cover him in all the blankets he had around, and continue to act as a pillow while caressing the side of his face. “That’s just awful and I’m glad you got out of it alive.”

 

“Not as happy as me, I bet,” James joked, pushing Q’s hair out of his eyes. “Although, waking up with you hunched in pain by my side made me think I was dead and if it wasn’t for the pain I felt when your R stabbed me with her needles, I’d still think that.”

 

Q turned and looked at her as if he had just witnessed her kicking the most adorable puppy in the world right after flinging an innocent kitten in shark-infested waters and she couldn’t believe how fast Q got attached to a complete stranger. However, the look in his eyes softened pretty fast, proving that he still had enough control over the brain in his trousers to know when someone was being an overdramatic cunt.

 

“I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose,” Q said slowly, arranging the blankets around James. “R is always careful when she takes care of me and I cannot remember a single cut so much as stinging me when she cleaned it, so maybe your skin was just extra sensitive after what you’ve been through.”

 

James better cuddled in Q’s lap, closing his eyes as he hummed in agreement. R thought that he was going to say something else when his lips parted slightly, but was surprised to hear him start to lightly snore.

 

“I know,” Q whispered before R could start lecturing him. “But he doesn’t feel like everyone else on the island, so I’ll trust and hide him and I’ll ask you to do the same.”

 

Q liked to play dirty and gave her a puppy look which she always had a hard time resisting – but she would be damned if she wasn’t going to try her best.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Despite knowing what it was expected of him, James didn’t really go out of his way to find a reason to go into the city. Though, to his defence, the first day didn’t count since he was still recovering from his ordeal which meant that he spent it sleeping in Q’s lap and being fed by him while they made small talk about what life on the island was like and how Q felt like a prisoner most of the times.

 

He was also going to have to be excused for not being in a rush to get out of the hut and hunt down his target because Q and his little laboratory – and everything that Q had created – were beyond interesting and he was sure that MI6 would love a very detailed report on him – not that James was actually going to write one, but that wasn’t the point. For someone who had no idea what the internet was or how cell phones worked – or that they even existed – Q was an amazing inventor that looked like he got his mind blown when he realized that the only reason only one of his weather machine was more than enough to control the weather around the entire island was because satellites existed and they were orbiting the Earth.

 

R wasn’t too happy when Q revealed to him that he was the one who created their main defensive system but then again, he had a hard time imagining the woman looking anything other than sour for anything less than seeing his dead body and he had to admit that on a certain level, her defensiveness of Q was both adorable and commendable, she was nothing more than an annoying obstacle that a cold-hearted spy would remove without missing a beat on every other level.

 

But James hadn’t lost all of his humanity, so he simply focused on trying to find new ways of distracting her from her extreme hatred of him so he could be left alone with Q. All of his attempts failed miserably, the woman snapping back at him that she didn’t care if he was thirsty, or that he felt dirty and wanted to take a hot shower. As far as she was concerned, he could go in a corner and dehydrate all he wanted and was he sure that he was a fisherman given that he hadn’t been able to catch a single fish while Q brought back five large ones which he had caught with his bare hands after just one hour?

 

“R, he’s our guest,” Q gently reminded her after she was done exploding, grabbing her hand and pulling her outside so they could have a private conversation – which James heard without really trying because the walls where that thin. “Stop picking on him.”

 

“I’m an adult and adults don’t pick on people,” she grumbled. “I’m simply pointing out the flaws in his…” She trailed off and sighed, so James imagined that Q looked disappointed at her. “Alright, fine. But it’s obvious that he wants to be left alone with you.”

 

Q muttered something that James couldn’t make out, but he realized by R’s groan that it was in his favour. The fact that she was visibly biting her lower lip to keep herself from saying anything while he asked her if she would terribly mind checking the beach to make sure that none of his things had washed up on it and looking to Q before stomping out of the little hut confirmed that fact and James really tried not to grin when a blushing Q turned to him to ask how he wanted his fish – very fried or burned to a crisp?

 

“Since you caught it, why don’t I cook it?” James offered.

 

Q looked both amazed and surprised. “You can cook?” He asked and James nodded. “Cook for real or ‘shove a stick in a fish and put it in the fire’ kind of cook? Because I’m not picky and the latter does sound good but if you’d like, I could drop them to one of the restaurants in town and have a chef do it for us.”

 

James looked incredulously at Q because he really didn’t think that someone Q’s age would ask something like that and really mean it. “Cook for real,” he answered slowly before taking the fish away from Q and starting to properly clean them, explaining everything he did in as much detail as he could to the mesmerised man.

 

R returned just as he had placed himself behind Q to show him how to properly gut a fish while waiting for the ones he cooked to cool off a little and he was sure that if he didn’t have Q blocking him, she would have thrown the dripping luggage he was pulling behind her right at his head.

 

“I have good news and bad news,” she wheezed, both men realizing only then that she looked like she had just finished running a marathon. “I got this,” she held up the bag, “but the guards found the rest of Bond’s stuff.”

 

Q made a little noise in the back of his throat and carefully put down the fish and the knife before turning with the most disappointed look James had ever seen. “I have to go back into town for a bit. A few days, tops.”

 

James watched Q whirl around like a spinning top for a few seconds in search for something, explaining his actions so fast that he made no sense despite R nodding in agreement before placing James placed his hands on his shoulders to stop him. “I’ll be fine,” he said and gently cupped Q’s face.

 

Q’s eyes started to flutter close while James started to slowly lean closer, quickly licking his lips to make sure that they were just the right kind of soft. He wondered how Q’s lips would feel since the man nibbled on them constantly to the point of almost drawing blood – which always made them look plump and inviting – but he didn’t get a chance to find out because of course R had to clear her throat and burst their little privacy bubble.

 

“Something tells me that if you show up looking dishevelled, things will end with the island being turned upside down because you never showed interested in anyone here,” she pointed out and while James was actually considering of blowing his cover for the sake of his curiosity, Q had stepped away from him and was busy making sure that not even a single hair on his head was out of place.

 

“I shouldn’t be gone for too long and if the weather becomes worse and I’m still stuck in the castle, R will sneak you in a shelter for the workers.” Q turned to look at R, smiling when she reluctantly started to nod her head. “Also, I hate to ask you this, but please don’t wander too far away from the hut if you get bored in here; there are quite a lot of guards on the island that have a facial recognition program that I made and since they’re on high alter, they will be using it and they’ll know right away that you aren’t supposed to be here.”

 

Now, normally, when someone told James not to do something – even if it was for his own good – he was even more tempted to do said thing. But the way Q asked him… The worry and fear in his voice overcame James’ natural instinct of putting himself in harm’s way just because he could and everyone at MI6 must have felt a disturbance in the cosmos’s natural balance because when he promised that he’d be careful, he actually meant it and actually tried his best.

 

And keeping himself alive and safe wasn’t as easy as it sounded because the bag R grabbed was small and everything even remotely technological inside of it was dead and while Q had a lot of notebooks that looked like they were full of important things that everyone in the Major’s branch would just die to get their little boffin paws own, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of anything and since it never crossed anyone’s mind to give him water resistant tech when they knew he was going to be in the ocean so he didn’t waste too much of his brain cells trying to understand what all those sketches and calculations meant.

 

Now compare the nothingness that he was left with inside the hut – Q’s inventions were nice and shiny, but he could easily picture the Major somehow popping up right next to him and slapping his hand away before he could even touch anything or worse, the complex machines suddenly crumbling to dust the moment he did touch them – with the pleasant weather outside and with the more than inviting ocean smell that attacked him from all sides and you’d end up with a very fidgety James Bond.

 

He was actually reminded of the time when he was at Eaton, stuck in one of the many boring Latin classes or Classical Writers classes and he couldn’t focus on anything but the incredible green grass and the cheerful birds that were perched on the trees right outside the room that he was being held captive in and on his urge to jump up and flip the table right before rushing out.

 

But he remained inside the hut like he was supposed to. He sat down on the little bed and folded his arms in his lap and thought. He thought about how the bed had been softer somehow when Q had been in it despite the fact that the man was as skinny as a twig. He thought about how Q’s baggy clothes brought out his figure despite the fact that they would normally make someone look like a scarecrow. He thought about Q’s green eyes were always warm and kind and full of mirth no matter what silly, mundane thing he was hearing and about how he was slightly jealous of him because the last time he looked at anything the way Q did, his parents were still alive.

 

His mind then wandered to all the other times he had started feeling this strong about anyone so soon after meeting them and his good mood dampened. The first to crush his heart had been Roan the Main with a hidden husband and agenda to take the royal family down and although that chapter of his life ended with her taking a bullet for him and apologizing for what she did, he wondered if perhaps she had really been a witch that put a curse on his love life the second he came clean about having been forced to kill her husband. Proving to himself that he was secretly a masochist, his mind then focused the latest one – Vesper – who offered up his life in exchange for a manipulative bastard’s before deciding that drowning herself after giving him a slight change to save himself was the best way to end things.

 

Was Q like that? Was everyone on this island aware that he was here and they simply sent out their best actor to toy with him while the shrouded puppet-master looked for the right stabbing angle? Was he being watched at this exact time? He had formed a sixth sense about that and nothing felt off as he sat there and started at a fixed point on the wall before him, but what if Q had gotten him to lower his defences to the point where he’d lost this special ability of his? Or what if R had injected him with a new drug that made it seem like you weren’t drugged but you were as high as a satellite?

 

“No,” he told himself suddenly, scaring away the birds that were hopping around the windowsill. Don’t overthink, he added in his mind and shook his head, forcing himself to focus on what he knew and felt.

 

Still, he had to admit that remaining in the hut became infinitely harder due to the fact that he was slowly calming down from working himself into a state that would cause others a panic attack. It had gotten to the point where it was almost impossible not to go with his instinct of setting the place on fire and then using that as a distraction to sneak into the city, track his target down and then killing him – but then he reminded himself that there was nothing worse than a double oh overreacting and turning into a wounded animal and he felt his control over his actions and thoughts.

 

The hardest moment out of his way, James realized that he was hearing voices coming not too far away from the hut and although he thought it sounded like Q and R were squabbling with each other again over how much trust Q put in him not turning out to be a crazed psychopathic killer, he still grabbed a wrench and ducked under the bed, pressing himself against the wall as much as he could while holding his breath, readying himself for a surprise attack.

 

He heard the door open and someone walking in, the smell of good food instantly making his mouth water – he had forgotten to actually eat the canned food that R had brought him a few hours after Q had left – but he did not dare to move a single muscle.

 

“What a surprise, this place is empty,” R declared with more than a little smugness in her voice while Q’s legs came into James’ view. “I told you that he was up to no good, Q. Who knows what his real goal was—?”

 

“Is it safe?” He asked from his hiding place before R could continue to denigrate him, poking his head out just in time to see Q jump so far away from the bed that he bumped into one of his projects. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” James added sheepishly, starting to drag himself out. “I heard voices and…” He trailed off and shrugged, holding back a smile at how hard Q was struggling to pull him out, his heart missing a beat at how truly relieved he looked to see him – Roan had looked the same at him all those years ago, as did Vesper, and they both almost cost him his life and the world its freedom.


	6. Chapter 6

“Can I take it apart?” Q asked, fingers twitching as he itched to grab the screwdriver that was just out his reach at the sight of something called a mobile phone. James had explained that it worked like a walkie-talkie – except better and with a higher range due to satellites being something that existed – but it looked nothing like one. It didn’t have an antenna, it didn’t have any knobs on it and it was made almost entirely out of glass. “I should be able to put it back together the same way it was before pretty fast after I learn how it works.”

 

James chuckled and ruffled Q’s hair. “You can keep it and do whatever you want with it because I don’t think it’s going to work ever again.” Q side glanced at him and licked his lips, James learning by now that it meant that a challenge had been accidentally issued and that Q had accepted it. “I can’t wait to see how you improve it.” Because Q never fixed things back to the way they were; he improved them, he made them better than before, making it really obvious what his role on the island was if the whole perfectly working weather machine wasn’t a dead giveaway.

 

Q beamed up at James and then gently pushed him out of his way as he set about working. He had been stuck in the city and under its ruler watchful eyes for three whole days and he was driven mad not only because he was worried about James – R’s sarcastic updates not helping him one bit – but also because he had been forced to check their security systems for any breach in them over and over and over again. Now that he saw for himself that James was safe and sound and that he was presented with something new that was an actual challenge that he was more than interested in, the world could go to hell for all he cared and the only way he’d move from his spot on the ground was if someone picked him up and treated him just like a piece of furniture you wanted to relocate.

 

He wasted no time in taking apart the phone and, half an hour later, he had managed to lay out each and every piece of the phone on the floor and then allowed himself a second of feeling proud before starting to draw them as detailed as he could in one of his little notebooks. James looked over his shoulder every now and then, smiling at him the few times their eyes locked and making his face heat up, but he soldiered through the distractions and carried on with his new project.

 

The passage of time was something he didn’t quite understand when he was like this and it was hunger that brought him back to reality when he was younger but he had learned how ignore the way his stomach burned. His back pains, on the other hand…

 

“I’m very good at massages,” James whispered close to his ear, ducking just in time to avoid getting head-butted by the startled Q, clicking his tongue and flinching when he heard how his back cracked. “And it sounds like you need one right away.”

 

Q could name three places that offered massages that were a short walk away without missing a beat, but everyone knew that if he needed one it meant that he was working on something important and that meant that he’d have to show the ‘illustrious leader’ his plans and he was very sure that he couldn’t explain how he had gotten his hands on a mobile phone without giving away the fact that the guards had all the reasons to thoroughly comb the island, so between that and making a fool of himself in front of James, feeling like he was stabbed by an endless number of very sharp knives every time he took a breath didn’t sound that bad.

 

“I’m fine,” he lied while doing a horrible job of supressing his flinch of pain when he made the smallest of moves. “Or I will be in a minute, but don’t worry; this happens all the time.”

 

James eyebrows knitted together and he kneeled before him. “Q, just because something always happens, it doesn’t mean that it has to,” he said with obvious worry in his voice, squeezing his shoulder. “But I understand if I’m making you uncomfortable. We just met and no one is comfortable with a stranger touching them unless they specifically came to that person for a service that implies having to be touched.”

 

Just as James had straightened up and started to back away, Q’s hand shoot up and grabbed his arm to keep him in place. “Well, it can’t hurt to try,” he said quickly, looking away from James, feeling so embarrassed that the tips of his ears were burning. “I mean, if you still want to—”

 

“Of course I do,” James interrupted him and carefully tugged Q back on his feet.

 

“I don’t have any massage oils though and I’d rather keep my clothes on.” He jumped on the bed and let out a groan, vision covered by white spots of pure pain for a few moments.

 

James chuckled, kneeling by the bed and pulling a thin blanket over Q’s back before folding it just about his backside. “An ideal massage would need more oil and fewer clothes,” he said chuckling. “The mattress on your bed is soft enough and the ambient music is the best kind since it’s live, so I’m sure that I’ll still be able to work out all these knots from your back and get you to relax a little. Please take a deep, slow breath and tell me when you want me to start.”

 

Q did as he was told and a moment after he nodded, James’ hands were on the bottom of his back, starting to apply a bit of pressure as he moved upwards. Q braced himself when he realized that James wasn’t going to break contact when his hands moved back down as he feared he’d suddenly feel a stab of that horrible blinding pain again, but by the time James’ big, strong hands got to the area that bothered him, James was doing little more than just simply touching him.

 

“You tensed just now, so do you want me to stop?” James asked, moving to kneel in front of Q. “Did I hurt you? Because I really didn’t mean to; I thought I had pinpointed the area—”

 

Q covered James mouth with his hand, disappointed in himself for not using his lips to do that. “You clearly know what you’re doing, so please carry on.”

 

James took his hand, placed a small kiss on his knuckles – that derailed any train of thought Q might have had for the next few minutes – and returned to rubbing his back, starting to hum a little tune Q couldn’t place under his breath. It helped getting him to relax and soon, Q found himself turning putty under James’ hands and on the verge of sleeping, but just as he was about to give up his half-assed fight, the humming stopped and he realized that the low rumbling that came from above him was a question.

 

“I’m sorry, what?” He asked, bringing his hands out from under the blanket to push his glasses on top of his head so he could rub his eyes.

 

“I asked you if you really don’t remember anything outside the island,” James repeated himself, although this time his massaging had brought him close to near his head and his lips found themselves near his ear once again.

 

It was hard enough to focus on anything when James was in the room, but to form cohesive sentences when he was touching his back like this and his lips were almost brushing against his ear while his voice sounded like Q imagined a lover’s would was nay impossible.

 

So he made a little sound in the back of his throat as a way to force himself to focus at the task at hand and wracked his brain for an answer. James didn’t repeat his question despite Q not having said anything after 5 minutes and instead continued to massage little firm circles in his back which, strangely enough, made him remember something that had been long forgotten.

 

“A strange, round clock that was in a large square on top of a tower that seemed to make me deaf when it told time,” Q finally said, shutting his eyes tightly in an attempt to hold on to that memory. The more he held on to this picture in his mind, the surer he was that he had visited this place countless times, both in reality and in the dreams he forgot the second his eyes opened and he struggled to see the face of the person whose hand he knows he’s holding.

 

“London’s Elizabeth Tower,” James said, snapping him out of his reverie before he could get frustrated with how bad his eyes had been at that point in his life – not that they were any better now when he didn’t have his glasses on. “Or it could be another one, but given how you look and the accent you have…” He trailed off and stopped mid-pinch. “Though, one tends to lose their native accent if they moved regions, so I wonder if this is how you originally sounded.”

 

“Huracan said it reminded him of another boy that had been on the island not that long before I arrived,” Q said simply, remembering how scared he had been when he’d met the man. He also hadn’t liked the men dressed in strange clothing that took him to the imposing house with dark corridors and paintings of strange creatures, nor did he like how angry the tall yet plump man looked prior to becoming aware of his presence. “He said that I must do all in my power not to lose it since it was all that I will have left of my home.”

 

He remembered how he had started to cry when he heard that, slapping away the hand that rested on his shoulder and stepping on someone’s foot so he could bolt out the door and how hungry and scared he had been those first few days on this island because he had gotten lost in the forest.

 

“A hurricane talked with you?” James asked, now kneading his back like one of his furry friends did when their weight and claws wouldn’t mean his death.

 

“El Huracan was the ruler’s name,” Q explained. “Now that I think about it, it fit him perfectly. I don’t think he was ever aware of how much I knew, but let’s just say that I figured out pretty early on that as long as you were in the centre of his court, he was a pleasant and kind person.”

 

James stopped suddenly. “But that’s usually just the eye of the storm,” he said and Q hummed in agreement. “Did you ever have to face the storm full on?”

 

“Not the real one, no,” Q answered without having to think. “Not that I didn’t get into trouble since I had a thing for constantly running away and jumping into the ocean, but his punishments were giving me actual chores after which he’d give me books or videotapes with cartoons and send me back to my room after making sure I’ve eaten my own weight in chocolate and other foods I liked to make up for the fact that I worked the fields for that day.”

 

“Why were you trying to run away?”

 

“I wanted to go home,” Q whispered, sitting upright in bed as he was suddenly overcome with anger. He had long since accepted that this island was going to be the only place he could call home, despite what Huracan had promised one night, and James was just opening old, deep wounds and pouring salt into them. “I would rather not talk about that anymore.”

 

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” James said softly, sitting on the bed next to him and taking Q’s hand in his and squeezing it. “If you still want to go home, I can take you there.”

 

Q felt like someone had knocked all the air out of his lungs and he felt numb. “This place is the only home I know now and although Huracan is no more and things got a bit worse after his daughter arrived because she is much colder and rough around the edges than he ever was, she can still be kind and understanding.” His voice sounded hollow and he could picture a younger version of himself attacking him. “I’ll help you go back to your own though, don’t worry. I’d hate for you to end up like me.”

 

“Me end up a charming, smart young man that has common sense?” James said as he cupped Q’s face, his thumb caressing his chin as he looked deeply into his eyes. “Many would say that’s impossible and I wouldn’t argue with them on that since they know me better than I do, but if there’s one thing that I do know is that a home can be wherever you want.” He brushed his lips against Q’s, eyes never leaving his. “Do you mind if I give you a proper kiss as a thank you for everything you did and as an attempt to soothe you and make you forget?”

 

Q closed his eyes and pushed his lips against his and James wasted no time in wrapping his arms around his middle and pulling him closer. Q had read books about this and he had seen movies where people kissed, but he had never done it himself. R was his sister in all but blood and he never felt the need to kiss her anywhere else but her cheeks – despite her recent demands of him kissing both her feet and the ground she walked on for all she was putting up with – and no man or woman on the island – be they permanent guests or workers – ever caught his eye, but when he saw James… Oh, good God, he wanted nothing else than to smash his lips against his.

 

In most movies he saw, what was called ‘Frenching’ was an aggressive and hungry act born out of desire and the need to dominate and James struck him as the kind of man who would do that. But James surprised him by being gentle, giving him a few soft pecks while dragging his hand from his face to the back of his neck before starting to nibble on his lower lip, waiting from him to part his lips on his own before starting to use his tongue.

 

Also from the movies, Q knew that he was supposed to run his own tongue against James’ and call out to God – or rather he knew that he was supposed to do that at one point. Though, truth be told, all he knew right now was that he quite liked the way James tasted, the way he moved against him, the way his hands roamed down his back in a different way than before, and that he was beginning to burn from the inside out.

 

When James broke the kiss, Q felt dazed and dizzy, his lips numbed because of what had to be the most pleasant thing in the universe. But his senses weren’t allowed to fully return to him because James’ lips were now attached to his neck, causing him to shudder and to tilt his head back to give him more access, moving his hands up James’ neck, entangling his fingers in James’ surprisingly soft, blond hair.

 

“I’ve accidentally done more than just kiss you, I’m afraid,” James whispered right against Q’s neck, making his trousers become tighter than they already were. “Do you want me to stop?”

 

“I’ll kick you back in the ocean if you do,” Q growled, pushing James’ face back against his neck. “I want to feel more of you on my skin,” he admitted a moment later, startled when the buttons of his shirt flew when James simply pulled it open and then a whimper got stuck in the back of his throat when James draw his tongue painfully slowly over his nipple, his blue eyes never leaving his, like he was asking for permission or checking to be sure that he hadn’t crossed a line yet. “More,” Q confirmed, biting his lower lip. “All,” he added and looked away for a moment before James cupped his chin and made him look at him again.

 

“Everything you ask of me and more, if you so wish it,” James promised and pulled Q in for another, slow, soft kiss, guiding Q’s trembling hands to his own shirt and helping him unbutton it.

 

They pulled apart at the same time that Q had finished with James’ shirt and he couldn’t help but admire the scarred chest once again. James let him trace his deepest scars, sighing in what felt like content and hugging Q to his chest when he leaned forward to kiss each and every one of them. He stopped when he reached the thin line that disappeared in James’ trousers, suddenly overcome by fear when he saw the protrusion in them.

 

Noticing that, James was quick to push Q on his back and put his legs on his shoulders, drawing little circles around his belly button with the tip of his index finger. “I can simply take care of your needs, Q.” He leaned up a bit and kissed Q’s belly, his hands starting to go down to open his trousers as he resumed his circle drawing with his tongue.

 

It felt like he had lava inside of him and like he was going to explode at any moment and when his trousers were finally pulled down, pats and all, and the material that he had thought to be as light as a feather felt as rough as a crocodile’s skin, he gasped and wrapped his legs around James’ back, accidentally pushing his face right against his hard, throbbing member.

 

“Sorry,” Q cried out, biting his fist and shoving his head under the pillow in embarrassment over the spark of pure pleasure that had travelled through his body in the short moment that he had felt James’ warm and unshaved face against his erection.

 

He never saw this in his movies and he knew what happened if that part of him was touched when it was like this. And he felt like he was slowly being driven to madness every time James exhaled and his warm breath washed over him and he knew he was still down there because when he took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself, he accidentally brushed himself against James’ beard and this time, there was a bit of pain mixed in with all the pleasure.

 

“James, please,” he begged, flinching when the pillow from his place was replaced with two hands.

 

“I’m sorry,” James breathed out, kissing his nose, eyes and forehead and slumping out of the bed, moving to pull the covers back over Q only to find himself pulled back on top of him by his hair.

 

“Just touch me for real already, you bloody bastard,” Q demanded and James looked more than happy to receive that order.

 

“I’ll do everything you ask of me,” James repeated and dragged his tongue down Q’s chest, flicking it over his tip before slowly starting to slide him into his mouth, getting Q’s legs back around his shoulders.

 

Q truly lost his ability to think then, little white spots appearing before his eyes and he started to make all sorts of noises – so this was part in which God’s name started to be invoked and Q finally understood why. Who wouldn’t do that if they had someone like James rub his tongue against him as he moved his head back and forth, each time taking in more of him? He continued to feel the pleasure in him grow more and more and when he realized that he was very close to reaching his limit, his trembling knees really close to touching and trapping James where he was, he forced himself to open his eyes and look down at him with the intent of telling him to pull away.

 

But seeing James look hungrily at him just as his lips finally touched his base was the last straw and he saw nothing but white while wave upon wave of pleasure was over him and he felt like he was floating and swimming at the same time. He realized that he was calling out to James but for a moment, he didn’t care about what he was doing or that R might have been making her way back to them and heard them because right then, the universe was just the two of them.

 

And then he regained enough of his senses to cover his mouth and stifle his screams, his contention turning into embarrassment. “I shouldn’t have done that,” he rasped out, hand moving from his mouth to his eyes, catching a glimpse of James happily licking his lips and fingers.

 

“Darling, I would have been disappointed at myself if you hadn’t,” James said as he came to rest next to Q, very obviously trying not to poke him with his not so little problem. “It was more than a pleasure and, darling,” he took Q’s hand kissed his knuckles before pressing it against his own chest, “I’m beginning to think that you’ll always find a way to surpass my expectations when it comes to how sweet you can be.”

 

“Saying something like that after what we’ve done is extremely embarrassing.” Q muttered, turning on his other side and staring up at the satisfied looking James. “Still…” He trailed off and grabbed James’ chin.

 

“Darling, it’s an acquired taste,” James gently warned.

 

But Q didn’t care and simply pushed himself closer to him, running his tongue over James’ lips for a moment before pulling back, eyebrows knitted in confusion. “You taste salty now, so how can you call me sweet?”

 

Instead of giving him a proper answer, James chuckled and tapped his nose. “To me, you’re the sweetest man I’ve ever tasted.” He flinched when Q scooted closer to him and it was very obvious why, Q worrying his lower lip as he was trying to build up enough courage in himself to truly ask for everything. “I’ll take care of my problem on my own,” James assured him, pushing Q’s hair away from his sweaty forehead. “Would you care to watch and maybe lend a helping hand if you feel like it?”


	7. Chapter 7

James woke up with a start. His first instinct had been to grab the gun he always had under his pillow but, as the sleep washed away from his muddled mind and he remembered where he was and who the warmth by his side belonged to, he kept his hand right where it was – entangled in Q’s messy, soft hair – and slumped back down in bed, hushing his stirring lover.

 

“Nothing but thunder in the distance,” he whispered in Q’s ear when he thought he had been asked in a mumbled pseudo-English what was wrong and it seemed to have been the right thing to say because Q moved to better cover him before falling still once again. “Thank you, darling.” That term of endearment rolled easily off his tongue and a single glance in the sleeping Q’s direction – lightly drooling on him and everything – assured him that the word had been created oh so many years ago just to describe Q and no one else in the entire universe.

 

And that was a very dangerous way of thinking. If he wasn’t careful, his mind would start to wander to that long list of names that was locked somewhere deep inside of it or to that happy place of what might be like it usually did when he found his sexual appetite sufficiently quenched and his mind and wit more than challenged, and that could only end in disaster.

 

No, he needed to ignore the blissful feeling of utter safety and belonging and focus only on the newly acquired information that his sleeping companion had accidently given him. Such as the fact that El Huracan had gone soft after his visit there and held back from sending innocent kids to do the Rat Run, but not soft enough to let them go back home. He also apparently had a daughter at some point after Q came to the island, although the way Q had said it made it sound like he either had her with someone off the island or with someone that had managed to leave the island while pregnant.

 

His train of thoughts was derailed by the door suddenly being kicked open and James wasted no time in rolling Q behind him, ready to use his body as a weapon to deter whoever was attacking them and a shield.

 

“And of course the hurricane is close to hit us and you are not in the city, so everyone that’s not a guest has to face another form of storm,” R grumbled as she slammed the door shut behind her, throwing some wet clothes towards the bed before doing a double take. “No, no, no, Q, you didn’t.”

 

James moved a bit to let Q curl up in a tight ball behind him and tried to look as innocent as he could at R. “Q isn’t here,” he very obviously lied. “Just me, my imagination, and my—”

 

“I will rip it and hit you over the head with it until you slip into a coma,” R growled and then started to charge, almost wrapping her hands around his neck before Q popped up from behind him.

 

“This is embarrassing enough, R, so could we not?” He murmured, arms wrapped around James’ chest, face hidden in his lover’s neck.

 

R tried to glare at him, but was quick to turn away when Q started to caress the side of James’ face, asking if he was okay while also apologizing for the sudden intrusion. It took James a moment to realize that he too was feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable and he brought the covers up over their heads to block out the world so he could be doted on in private – he couldn’t even pretend to be bothered by his nakedness for the sake of a mission, but someone else being present in the same room as him when another human being showed genuine care towards him? That was something that he couldn’t handle and there was no MI training that could help him deal with this.

 

“It’s fine; I’m fine,” James assured Q, rubbing his face against his hand. “I find it adorable that she’s so protective of you.”

 

He leaned close with the intention of kissing Q, but R made sure to accidentally step on his foot as she cleared her throat. “My severe nausea aside, we should really get a move on before the storm gets here.” She pulled the covers off of their heads and dumped the wet clothes on top of James’ before carefully putting a Heckler and Koch G36C assault rifle on the table. “I took the liberty of procuring a guard’s uniform and weapon – no rounds or magazine for it, mind you – to sneak you inside the city since I’m pretty sure that Q wouldn’t agree to let you stay here.”

 

“After every major storm, I had to rebuild this place so of course we’re not leaving James here,” Q said, brushing his lips against the back of James’ neck before sliding out of the bed.

 

“Thank you for suppressing your murderous tendency towards me for Q’s sake,” James said honestly – not his fault it came out sounding sarcastic – barely holding back from squeezing Q’s exposed backside. “What’s going to happen to all of your projects?”

 

R stepped in front of Q, blocking James’ view. “You’re going to stop drooling and help us pack the most sensitive and important ones to him and then carry them back to the city; Q hates security details, so the only way not to make this look suspicious is by turning you into his own personal ass.”

 

“I’m sure I won’t disappoint since I have you as the perfect example,” James shot back before he could stop himself.

 

“Why, you little—”

 

“Getting to safety first, acting like children later,” Q intervened, kneeling before James to help him with the uniform. “Precious dislikes things out of place and punishes every guard that dares to appear un-kept before her, so we have to make sure that your uniform is perfection despite the horrible weather.”

 

James felt like he had somehow been kicked out of reality, all sound and colour becoming muted while something as simple as breathing required a copious amount of time dedicated to remembering _how_ to do that.

 

“Did you say ‘Precious’?” It was more like an out of body experience. He could feel his lips and jaw move and he could hear the words coming out of his mouth, but he felt like he was somewhere in the room, observing a total stranger that looked like him have the conversation that he didn’t really want to have.

 

Q hummed, sitting on James’ lap as he struggled with getting the tie right. “Yes, that’s the name of the island’s ruler; Precious Amaryllis Stone.”

 

Why couldn’t the universe be on his side for once in his entire life? Why couldn’t his bloody past stay in his past or at least resurface without ill intent? What had he done in his childhood, or in his mother’s womb, or in his previous life to deserve this? Hadn’t Roan been enough? Hadn’t Vesper? When was the universe going to stop kicking him in the balls while slowly pulling what was left of his heart out of his chest to feed it to some karmic dogs?

 

“James, are you okay?” Q asked worriedly, his soft voice and warm hand on his forehead snapping him out of his brooding.

 

He needed to anchor himself in the moment and live it. “Yes, sorry. The oddity of the name simply blew my mind for a second.” He placed his hands over his tie, chuckling when he felt the many knots that it had been tied into. “Be honest with me, darling… You never had to deal with one of these things, did you?” The light blush that spread on Q’s face was all the answer that James needed. “I’ll teach you how to tie it when we have time.”

 

“Which isn’t now,” R underlined, tugging Q off of James by the red tips of his ears. “Now start packing before it gets too late to take anything out of here other than ourselves.”

 

The possibility of losing what might be his life’s work sent Q in a frenzy of quickly unscrewing rather large constructions which he labelled and then handed over to James to easily pack in simple luggage bags. The projects Q considered to be fragile were handed over to R to pack away and James could see the care she took in putting something similar to bubble wrap around them before covering that in cloth and placing them in heavier and better constructed bags.

 

This made James feel bad about the way he treated the Major’s own inventions since it was really easy to picture the old man look at the devices he entrusted him with on his missions with as much love as Q. In fact, his long history with destroying pretty much every piece of technology that was entrusted to him made him feel another type of anxiety that he never experienced before that translated in him faking a shoulder pain for a few minutes until he could no longer take watching a petite woman and a twig of a man struggle with things that had to weight twice as much as they did combined.

 

“I popped it and got better,” he told R before she could ask, biting Q’s neck to get him to let go of the heaviest one. “It would look strange if the guard that was sent to help you didn’t carry anything, wouldn’t it?”

 

It took them twenty minutes at a hastened pace to get to the outskirts of the city after the half an hour spent rush packing and James didn’t have to pretend that he was amazed by what he saw. The original buildings were all gone, taking with them the city’s mythical feeling. He no longer thought that he had found a place where the past and the present converged and instead felt like he was in downtown New York, looking for that one hipster café place that tasted just like Starbucks, but that costed twice as much.

 

“Close your mouth and looked unimpressed,” R hissed at him before signalling over a few heavily armed guards who were overlooking a small group of well-dressed people making their way up a small slope to where Huracan’s palace was supposed to be. “Get these in the usual room and let Miss Stone know that Q will be in the dining hall as soon as he is done taking a hot shower. We’ll keep this one,” she stuck her thumb in James’ direction, “with us for protection.”

 

“Yes ma’am,” the oldest and largest of the guards said, not sparing James a second look as they grabbed the heavier bags from him without any problems, muttering something in his ear piece before nodding and starting to address R. “A car has been dispatched and it will arrive shortly, so please hold your position.”

 

James moved closer to Q and took off his jacket, turning it into a makeshift umbrella. “The storm’s gotten worse and I’m sure Miss Stone wouldn’t appreciate it very much if I delivered him with a high fever on top of looking like a drowned cat.”

 

The guard’s full attention was now on him. “I do not remember seeing you.”

 

“I’m stationed on the beach,” James lied without missing a beat. “Miss R called me away from my post to assist with Q’s evacuation and I failed to inform my supervisor because the wind suddenly picked up and I worried that it might be too late.”

 

Both men sized each other up for a few seconds, the guard turning away first. “I’ll inform your team leader that you’re no longer missing. Miss R, please remember to always notify us when you’re taking one of our own, especially when an intruder might be on the island.”

 

R clicked her tongue and nodded, waiting for the group of guards to disappear before turning to smack James upside the head. “Do I really have to tell you not to stand out and to keep quiet unless not talking makes you stand out?” She hissed.

 

James had a comeback ready, but then Q sneezed and he forgot all about being petty in favour of keeping him warm and dry. He also decided to rip the driver a new one when the car finally appeared, growling and barking at him until the man was too afraid to even breathe in his direction, let alone dare to look at him or even think about striking up a conversation with him and realize that he was the intruder. In addition to the guaranteed silence and eyes on the road, it also got them to the castle faster than normal – awkward silences were the best motivation when you were in a hurry – and James allowed himself a single moment to sigh in relief that the castle looked the same before helping Q out of the car.

 

“I’ll keep my mouth shut and my head low from this point forward, so don’t waste your breath,” James promised R, putting his jacket back on and straightening up as Q made sure that he looked impeccable. “Miss Stone won’t even notice me.”

 

R snorted. “Damn right she won’t because you’ll be hiding in Q’s room until this storm is over and we find a way to get you off this island and out of our hair.” She slapped James’ hand before he could grab Q’s. “And stop that before anyone sees you,” she hissed, glancing around to make sure that no had seen them. “It’s not proper or common for guards to be this friendly to Q.”

 

Of course James had made sure that they were alone before trying to make a move on Q right in front of his personal Cerberus, but the woman refused to give him any credit. He might have become addicted to the way Q’s skin felt against his lips and he might be slowly deciding to drag the man kicking and screaming off the island for his own good if needed after everything went to hell, but he still had his actual mission in mind on top of dying to find out how and why Precious had gotten to be the ruler of this cursed island and he was aware that if he got caught now, everything would go to hell and Blofeld would probably be the one taking everyone there.

 

They were distracted by the shivering Q sneezing again and R placed her arm around him before James got the chance, leading the way to his room. Now, if the outside of the castle looked the same, as soon as you passed the outer hallway, everything changed. The furniture was the kind that new money would buy to let people know that whoever lived there was rich – gaudy and kitschy – and the colours were so bright that James regretted not having a pair of sunglasses.

 

Q’s room was situated in the west tower and James braced himself as he walked in, sure that it was going to look as horrible as the corridors, it was surprisingly normal. A simple black rug covered the hardwood floors, and the white walls had shelves upon shelves of old, worn down books about mechanical engineering, chemistry, out-of-date guides for various cities around the world – none with London or the UK in general though, which was strange – as well as a few bad romance novels, the one person bed reminded him of a military cot – James caught himself thinking that they would have to get a new one if they were going to continue their earlier activities – and the wardrobe was a quarter of the size of the one had had at home, but nothing else that would indicate the fact that he was the island’s inventor.

 

“I keep my personal projects at the hut and everything that has to do with the island is back in the security room,” Q explained without being prompted, opening a door to the left of the room and revealing a small bathroom, the tips of his ears turning red again. “I’ll go take that shower now.”

 

The message was clear. “I need one as well, so let’s save water and share the shower,” James said as he slowly started to undress, R clicking her tongue and shaking her head before reminding them that they had fifteen minutes tops before Q had to leave the room and make his way to the dining hall unless he wanted Precious to come here and catch him with the intruder. “So we’ll take an honest to God shower and have fun later.” He wrapped himself around Q as he said that, trailing little kisses down his neck to his shoulder, suddenly very aware and bothered that he had yet to leave a mark to let the world know that Q had someone to satisfy him.

 

“Twelve minutes left,” R chimed from the doorway before slamming it shut and with a disappointed sigh, Q pulled away and walked into the shower.

 

James walked in right after him, covering him once again as he turned on the water, flinching when he was hit by the cold spray and capturing Q’s lips in a kiss to keep him distracted from his discomfort. “Eleven minutes now,” he whispered, running his hands down Q’s front, avoiding his limp member. “This is not something that people take pride in, but I can be really fast if you want me.”

 

Q turned in James’ arms and rested his head on his chest, sighing softly. “I’m very tempted, but I’d rather we take our time tonight.” He snorted when James turned down the hot water and Q turned with his back at him, grabbing the shower gel. “Plus, I’m still a bit sleepy from our earlier activities and I don’t think you’d want to find someone to carry me to the meeting.”

 

“I’d be the one caring you, but to the bed, not the meeting,” James said seriously, holding his hands out around Q, waiting for him to share some of the shower gel.

 

Under the less than romantic circumstances, they were done with the shower in under five minutes and, after James convinced Q not to act too much like he had another place where he had to be to keep Precious and anyone else who might be in the room from getting suspicious, he was left to his own devices.

 

James had promised to wait quietly in the room, but that wasn’t going to happen. He had made sure to check for cameras, so he knew to keep his head low enough not to look suspicious to anyone in the security room, but not high enough for the facial recognition program to do its job and give him away as he casually made his way to main lobby, happy to see that at least the castle’s internal layout hadn’t been changed at all.

 

The guests looked as smug and as clueless as ever, none of them noticing him unless they wanted to snark about the room being too cold or too hot or that they were annoyed that the umbrellas that they were met with at the entrance was something too little too late since their very expensive clothes had already suffered water damage.

 

“I deeply apologize for this and I will let my superiors know about this grave offence so they could inform Miss Stone and see what can be done,” he said to each and every one of them, flashing them his best smile which caused most women and even some men to get all flustered while others just huffed at him and told him to make sure he does do that or else they’ll have him fed to sharks – crocodiles were the main problem on this island as far as he remembered, but he wasn’t going to tell them that.

 

He surveyed the rooms and made a list of each and every wanted criminal that was enjoying the finest wine in the world alongside caviar while paying no mind to all the workers that had once stood in their place and who now ran around, making sure that everything was securely tied down and locked up. A pity that the special pair of glasses the Major had made for him didn’t survive his little expedition, but maybe after presenting MI6 and every other agency in the world with a list of the criminals that were marked as MIA or KIA, everyone was going to believe him when he said that he had the best memory in the world despite all the alcohol he drank and all the hits to the head he took.

 

Self-pat on the back done, James moved deeper into the first level of the castle, immediately setting his eyes on someone that he too had thought dead. His instincts told him to simply walk up to him and strangle him with his Armani tie, but he reigned those instincts in and kept to the shadows, realizing that his self-control and patience was going to be tested when not a second later, his eyes landed on someone who had played the role of the victim in front of him so she could kill him for her husband – and then running away with her husband’s right-hand man as the crime empire started to crumble around them.

 

He knew there was one last big hall before the stairs that lead to the hall in which Huracan had invited only those he was truly interested in or those he was playing a game with and he wondered if Precious was using it for the same thing. This was the perfect power play and although Precious had been nothing but a snobby, petulant child that hid how scared and alone she was when their journey started, he thought that she had grown wiser after spending so much time in the presence of a manipulative, moneygrubbing, power-hungry assassin because, despite the anger that burned in her eyes, Precious hung on her every word and devoured every advice that was tossed her way.

 

“My tattered kite,” his step-brother’s voice greeted him the second he opened the ornate wooden doors that connected the last two halls on the first floor, the chattering behind him immediately dying down as everyone turned their attention to him. “Still dancing in a hurricane I see.”

 

“And you’re still hamming it up behind pawns, Blofeld,” he said simply, not missing the six genuine guards that were slowly moving on him from behind.

 

Blofeld shrugged, looking quite proud of himself. “Pawns that know and accept their place, little cuckoo, which make them a lot more agreeable to keep around that you.”

 

“Am I a kite, or am I a cuckoo?” James asked, easily sidestepping the three guards that suddenly charged him, hitting two others in their necks with the butt of his empty riffle, and then kneeling the last one in the stomach before throwing him at Blofeld’s feet, dusting his jacket off.

 

“You’re a pest,” Blofeld snarled, running a hand through his hair and taking a deep breath to calm himself down while more guards poured into the room, their weapons drawn. “But even a cockroach eventually dies if you smash it enough.”

 

James snorted, throwing his useless weapon over his shoulder before crossing his arms over his chest. “We both know that you won’t go for something as simple as riddling me with bullets. Not after I stopped your convoluted plan of taking over the world—”

 

“You only delayed the inevitable,” Blofeld hissed, his mask of indifference already starting to crack.

 

“—not after I showed your parents that not all children are soul-sucking leeches,” James continued undeterred. “And, most importantly, not after I got you to stupidly imprison yourself on this island.”

 

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and James found himself on his back with a face full of a shouting psychopath. “I knew what awaited me here and I’m not like that! I’m a ruler on this island, not a slave! I’m—”

 

“Speaking out of line and upsetting all the other guests,” a sharp, familiar voice cut in as two guards pulled Blofeld off of him and shoved the barrels of their guns in his face. “When you are done wiping that shocked look off your face, James, follow me,” Precious continued, smiling softly at him from the top of the stairs, somehow looking exactly the same as the last time he saw her and completely different.

 

“The eye-bleeding pink makes a lot more sense now,” James joked, shrugging the guards’ hands off his shoulders and getting up by himself. “Aren’t you a bit too old to still be into dollhouses?”

 

Her smile became sharper, her eyes colder. “As it happens, I have room at my table for one more person so why don’t we move to the dining hall for a private conversation? Mister Blofeld upset my guests enough for a day and I would really hate for them to think me part of the entertainment.”

 

The gun barrels that the guards pushed against his back made it clear that he couldn’t turn down her offer. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to take this conversation on the mainland while quite a few of my friends relocate your guests behind bars?” The tallest of the guards – the one that had been suspicious of him at the foot of the hill – growled and cocked his gun. “Then again, you did have an issue with your hair getting ruined back when we were children, so the dry dining hall sounds perfect.”

 

Everyone’s eyes were burning holes in the back of his head as he walked up the stairs, but he knew better than to let himself be affected by that. He kept his back straight and his eyes on Precious as he got closer to her, taking her hand and bowing as he brushed his lips against her knuckles.

 

“You really can’t charm yourself out of this one because I know how you really are,” she warned, but still linked their arms together, signalling the guards to turn their attention to the other people in the room.

 

“Correction: you know how I used to be,” James tried, but Precious just chuckled and shook her head while tutting.

 

“I have many of your former playmates living on this island and just because cell phones and the internet as well as every other thing that would connect this place with the outside world are forbidden for my vicious guests as well as everyone else, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a room filled with the latest technology.” She stopped suddenly and dug her sharp nails in his cheeks, her smile twisting into a cruel one. “Out of respect for what we’ve been through, don’t treat me the same way you treated all the others, James.”

 

“I would never…” He broke off into a low hiss as Precious dug her nails in deeper as they finally reached the dining hall and he was thankful for the painful distraction because there was Q, sitting miserably at the large table with red, puffy eyes, hiccupping. “I can’t help but slip into that persona, Precious, just like you clearly can’t help but to continue acting like that immature girl I first met.”

 

Though he expected the slap, he was surprised to find out that Precious had made sure to scratch him pretty deeply. “You will show me the respect that I deserve, Bond. I will not have vermin come into my house—”

 

“A house which you stole and a house which should have crumbled a long time ago,” James interrupted and he was smacked again, the sound of guns being cocked echoing down the staircase. “Remember how we felt when we got here,” he continued in a whisper, placing both his hands on her shoulders. “Remember how miserable we were and what we went through to get away. This place isn’t right.”

 

Precious took a deep breath and closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm down and revert back to her sweet persona. “It’s a prison that evil-doers come of their own accord, James. I know what Blofeld did and what he still hopes to do, so you should have let sleeping dogs lie and not come here to drag him back to your dreary little island.”

 

“You cannot be judge, jury, and executioner, Precious. That’s now how the real world works!” He realized that he had raised his voice only when he saw Q flinch and try to make himself smaller and he had to stop himself from going over to him and gathering him in his arms so he could still keep some semblance of him not having a single weakness on the island.

 

“That may be true where you come from, but here…” She trailed off and waved the guards away, implying that she saw herself as the ruling Goddess of this island, much like El Huracan had. “Now enough of this boring talk, James. I’m crabby when I’m hungry and I actually have decent cooks here and letting food go to waste during the storm that’s just hitting us is not only a sin, but stupid.”

 

Her voice held finality in it and James knew that he was fighting a losing battle, but he wasn’t the type to give up as long as he still had breath in his body. Still, there was a time for battles to be fought and a time for food to be had and while there was the huge risk of Precious taking a page out of Borgia history despite her not being related to them – as far as James knew; those times belonged to bastards more than to anyone else and nothing would really surprise him anymore – it wasn’t like he had a choice in the matter.

 

He hesitated for a moment before surveying the room, throwing the sad and now clearly sobbing Q an apologetic look before he was pretty much dragged to the chair by Precious’ right side, her nails digging in his arm deep enough to draw blood when he tried to speak with Q. She seemed happy to let the two of them keep eye contact, but he could not stand to see the pain in Q’s eyes for too long, instead choosing to focus on the still steaming soup that had been served in a clearly expensive China bowl, not quite feeling hungry. He tried not to think too hard about the fact that it was just the three of them and one frail old woman with a scarf wrapped around her head that was meticulously scrubbing a particularly dark brown spot on the carpet just beside Q and instead focus on a way to get both of them to safety.

 

Precious suddenly threw her bowl at the woman, causing Q to flinch again and James to turn to her, his fingers wrapping around the dull, silver knife. “You’re being too noisy and I don’t like the smell of lavender anymore,” she said petulantly. “Why aren’t you done by now? It’s already been more than ten minutes and I’ve been more than lenient with you.”

 

When the woman said nothing and just kept her head down as her arms began to tremble, Precious jumped to her feet, but James gently grabbed her arm and stopped her from going on a rampage. “How safe are we here? No matter how well-trained your private army may be, bullets are useless against a hurricane.”

 

He hoped to distract her, but he regretted it when she turned her cruel sights to Q. “Answer him, boy,” she instructed, ripping her arm free from James clutches and sitting back down just as a new bowl of soup was placed before her. “And don’t stammer! I absolutely hate it when you do that and it makes you look like a simpleton,” she said when Q let out a shaky breath instead of an actual word.

 

James decided right then and there that if she insisted on being a complete and total bitch, then so could he. “Where’s your brother, Precious? I never thought I’d ever see you without your shadow.”

 

It was obvious that she turned pale even though she had heavy makeup on and James allowed himself a moment to enjoy how much she was hurting. “You have no right,” she hissed.

 

“I have no right to ask about the wellbeing of an old friend?”

 

Precious slammed her fist on the table, seething. “You’re only allowed one question and since you first asked about your safety on the island, Q’s going to answer it. But where are my manners?” She asked slowly, a twisted grin spreading on her lips. “James, this is Q – who knows better than to talk with strangers or worse, hide them – and Q, this is James – a supposed old friend who couldn’t be bothered to care about those whose life he ruined after his fun adventure was over. Now come here and shake his hand and don’t make me repeat myself; I think I made myself clear ten minutes ago that I’m not in the mood for any of your stupid games.”

 

Q got up immediately, but he clearly could not get his feet to move. His entire body shook and his sobs were getting louder and stronger and James simply couldn’t take that anymore, cursing Precious under his breath as he walked up Q, wrapping his arms around him and turning him away from the guards that appeared out of seemingly nowhere, ready to riddle the younger man’s body with bullets as punishment for James not playing by Precious’ sick rules.

 

“That’s quite enough,” James growled at her, trying to hide Q as much as he could in his chest in order to offer him enough privacy and safety for him to have his breakdown. “Q hasn’t done anything wrong.”

 

“He’s harboured you,” Precious spat. “He’s broken my trust after everything I’ve done for him just because he had an itch he refused to scratch with the ones I deemed worthy and you expect me to let him simply walk away? You know the rules of this island as well as I do, James, and you know that I have to do what I do.”

 

James hugged Q tighter to him when he felt how stiff he had grown in his arms. “You don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to, Precious,” he said softly, plating a kiss on Q’s ear. “I’ll keep you safe,” he promised. “I’ll give you your freedom back.”

 

“R,” Q hiccupped, turning his tear-filled on James which made him feel like the most powerless man in the universe. “She didn’t do anything to deserve this. She— she was born on this island a few months after I came here. She’s innocent.”

 

So Q had accepted – or just realized – what this place really was.

 

Precious snorted, avoiding looking at him. “Now do you realize just how much trouble you have caused me, James? Now do you understand why my hands are tied?” James became aware of the guards moving in closer too late to truly stop them from pulling him away from Q, one of the two guards that he had hit in the face with the butt of his gun returning the favour when he tried to free himself. “Don’t make things harder than they already are.”

 

“They don’t have to be hard at all,” James continued to hiss, grunting when he was punched straight in the face before resuming his struggling. “Keep Blofeld… No, keep all of them, but let Q and I leave.”

 

For a moment, he could read regret on Precious’ face and he was foolish enough to breathe a sigh of relief as the guards’ hold on him relaxed. But then Precious opened her mouth and James remembered that nothing went the right way for him even though she genuinely sounded devastated by what she was saying. “Q will remain in the dungeons until the weather clears up,” she ordered, falling back in her chair and looking quite pleased with the chaos that she had unleashed.

 

James failed around, kicking and trying to shrug off the guards that were attempting to keep him still long enough for Q to be led away. Not that Q simply accepted his fate. No, no. He might have been thin as a wisp, tears might have not yet dried on his cheeks, and he might have been awkward in the most adorable and endearing way around James, but he was a fighter.

 

He let the guards get close to him before he lashed out and he got to kick in the face quite a few, looking wild as he sank his teeth in the arm of whoever was dumb enough to get that close to him. He also played dirty when he had do as he suddenly went limp after a guard had struck him over the face because he knew the panic that it would cause. The offender staggered back, muttering an apology, Precious’s back had straightened – although James guessed that it was because her fun had been cut short – and the rest of the guards forgot what they were doing long enough for James to break free from their grasp, more determined than ever to kill everyone in the room as he too had bought the act.

 

“Run,” Q shouted, jumping back up on his feet and grabbing James’ arm, pulling him after him as he headed straight for a wall. “Hidden passageway,” he explained without being prompted because everyone’s shock was wearing off and this was their only chance to get away.

 

James remembered the passageway tough, as well as how to close it from the other side and how to lock it, thing he instantly did the second he got all his limbs passed the door. Q was still trying to drag him down the stairs and as far away from Precious since his brain dictated that anywhere but there was safe when James pulled him back in his arms and calmed him down with a rough kiss.

 

Q moaned in his mouth and wrapped his arms around him, demanding more, biting down on James’ lip when he started to pull away. He saw then how terrified and destroyed Q looked and if it weren't for Precious’ clear voice from beyond the door instructing her men to bring the bazooka and blow it to smithereens, he would have offered Q what he wanted and needed.

 

“We have to find a place where we can hide,” James whispered urgently, wiping the unshed tears from around Q’s eyes with his thumb. “We’ll avenge her but we need to live through this first, understand?” Q nodded. “Good, now hold on tight to my hand and no matter what you hear, don’t turn around.”

 

They took off again, down the narrow stairwell, and when James heard noises coming from below them, he slowed down and started to feel around the walls for another lever to get out on whatever floor they were on and yes, it was a huge risk, but it wasn’t like they had an actual choice – it was also a huge mistake, James walking out right into Blofeld’s fist which was quickly followed by a kick to his stomach.

 

“Don’t hurt—”

 

Blofeld covered Q’s mouth, digging his nails into his cheeks as he slammed him against the wall, kicking James in the face to keep him disoriented and out of his hair. “Your mummy or sister or whatever you thought her to be wants you grounded and while I don’t give a single penny on what she wants, I’ll make an exception this one time. And don’t try to bite me, you little rodent, or else I might crush this roach,” he warned, placing his foot on James’ head and applying just enough pressure to get him to make a noise of pain that froze Q. “That’s a good boy.”

 

He brought his foot up and then down again, nothingness following the white pain that exploded in James’ head.


	8. Chapter 8

The castle’s dungeons were less damp than Q had imagined them to be. They were also more real than he had hoped and a lot more secure. There was no window for him to crawl out of after he had sawed the bars off – which was a good thing given that a hurricane had raged above him and death by drowning sounded tedious – and the cell door was made out of a special kind of glass that didn't crack no matter how many times he threw himself against it – not that he continued to do that after the first day since both of his sides were numb from pain and he was completely covered in bruises, something that made the old doctor that visited him promise to keep him under heavy sedation if he continued.

 

The guards looked at him like they felt pity for him, but a lot of good that did him! They still said that they couldn't let him go and when he tried to tug at their heartstrings with his pathetic sobs and whimpered pleas, they turned their backs to him and began talking with each other about the weather.

 

On his second day there, he tried making himself sick by refusing to eat or drink anything and Precious herself paid him a visit to try to convince him to be smart about it, but he threw the offered plate at a wall.

 

“Whatever you have planned for me, I clearly won't survive, so why bother? Just so you can get free entertainment?” He exploded, shaking with rage. “How many kids born of this island have you put through this just because they or their parents stepped on your toes? And for how many deaths am I responsible?”

 

Precious slapped him. “I have never killed anyone for the sake of having fun!” He made to say something, but Precious slapped him again, drawing blood this time. “You were the only child on this island that was kept in the dark about what was happening because you were the only one who came from the outside that reminded him of James,” she sneered at him as she slumped next to him. “I suppose he gave you R not only to keep you distracted, but also because she was supposed to take my place.” She reached out to him and actually looked hurt when Q flinched. “All those born on the island were either taken to the mainland or retrained to better serve from the shadows, so cease trying to turn me into some kind of a monster.”

 

“But you are,” Q insisted. “You are and I won’t run for you or those other monsters and R will take good care of me when I join her—”

 

“What about your darling spy, James?” Precious interrupted him, fighting back a smile when Q's head shot up and he turned to curiously look at her. “Ah, that’s right,” she said, chuckling. “A mark doesn’t know they’re a mark and that their lover is actually a spy who is simply using them. I guess I should have let you have a few spy novels to better prepare you for the real life.”

 

Those few words felt like a slap in the face with a very sharp knife and all the words that followed were pure salt rubbed in his wounds. And she took pleasure in how miserable he looked while she listed the countless people that James had been with and how he had used them before letting them die. He was nothing more than just a name on that list, she told  him, nothing but a little pawn that was tricked out of being something important by James’ charms.

 

“And you weren’t using me? Wasn’t Huracan?” Q shot back, voice an octave higher, fisted hands shaking by his sides as tears threatened to spill. “But no more. No matter what sick game you have planned for me to entertain yourself and your _guests_ , I won’t do it so just kill me now.”

 

“You’re even more of a brat now than you were back when I first met you,” she hissed, gritting her teeth. “I want you to run for a chance to continue to be useful to me as well as for your darling spy’s life and that of…” She trailed off and stepped to the side, revealing a badly wounded but still very much alive R.

 

“How…?” he started, trying to claw the glass away, _needing_ to wrap his arms around her, to make sure that she was really there and that she had a real heartbeat. “Why?”

 

Precious’ look softened then, looking as human as she did the first day she set foot on the island all those years ago. “Because R is your loyal friend,” she whispered before clearing her throat. “And you are equally loyal to her, so I needed something else to control you with in case Bond wasn’t enough.” She walked over to R and rested their heads together, smiling at her as she patted her cheek, clearly back to her old self. “I mean, if Bond is enough and you consider fighting for her life too much of a hassle, I’d be more than happy to rid your already burdened shoulders of her.”

 

“No,” Q shouted, hitting the glass with his fists. “I’ll do whatever you want, so just leave her and James alone!”

 

“Pathetic,” she snarled, her hands turning into fists by her side. “So he’s had his fun with you as he did with many and just like each and every one of them before you, you’re willing to risk everything for him despite not knowing him for that long.” She looked extremely jealous and Q was careful to remain as still as possible, refusing to show and feel any regret for being so loyal towards someone who had very obviously used him.

 

After all, Precious had done the same as did Huracan before her, but James had offered him something he had craved for a long time and even if it was one-sided, it felt good to experience the beginning of love –Q ignored as much as he could the fact that being used was still ripping his heart to shreds.

 

“I had my fun with him in return, you know,” Q said, hoping he sounded unaffected.

 

Precious hummed, tapping her chin. “Are you sure your darling James isn’t enough? If you pick only one of them, I can make things easier for you.”

 

“No,” Q said without missing a beat, frowning. “I will run for both James _and_ R or I’ll make sure to ruin your fun.”

 

A look of fear flashed in Precious’ eyes and Q  thought her lost to the world for a moment. “I could have them both killed this very instant and you’d still run because the horrors that await you are too cruel and too painful to simply accept, trust me,” she uttered, shaking her head before smiling at him and clapping her hands before her. “But it won’t come to that, will it, Q? Because that silly woman is your sister and you think that horrid man is your lover.”

 

Q started to shove food in his mouth which was exactly the answer that Precious was looking for and although he hated dancing to her tune, he was willing to do backflips at this point if that meant no more harm befell R and that James would continue to breathe and simply _exist_ in a place that wasn’t here.

 

He spent the following two days doing nothing other than eating, sleeping, and trying not to think too much of what was going to happen to him. For all the freedom that both Huracan and Precious had granted him, there were still parts of the island that he had never seen, the guards posted around those points being very aggressive with him whenever they caught him trying to ‘accidentally’ wander in their perimeter. Even the few island workers that had known him since he was a child and that Precious allowed to do more than look away from him and excuse themselves when he addressed them refused to talk to him about what happened there, some of them making a cross before spitting to the side before practically running away from him.

 

And then the fifth day came and Q knew that it was time by the pitiful looks the guards were giving him. They gave him a can of something that smelled disgusting and instructed him to rub it over his limbs, neck, and face – but not get it in his eyes or in his mouth either by accident or on purpose or _else_ – and once that was done, they started giving him instructions.

 

“Don’t think too much,” the one wearing a driver uniform – named Jim; Q remembered fixing his weapon at least 6 times just in the last year – said, the other two guards nodding solemnly in agreement. “And don’t stay in the same place for too long, especially in large bodies of water that _look_ peaceful. Actually, always count to five and remember that you should already be making your first step when you reach five.”

 

“Except if the coast appears to be clear, but mind the noises around you,” the one on his left – Carl; he was the guard that kept dropping his walkie-talkie in water – added, patting his back.

 

The guard on his right – Andrew, one of the more friendlier guards on and off duty, the man smiling only when Q asked him to help him with something  – squeezed his shoulder to get his attention. “And, most importantly, if you get to the end, keep to the right until you feel a dent. You’re tall, so you can kick above the lock, but don’t forget to use your dominant foot, so move it slightly closer to the door. You also have to drive the heel of your standing foot into the ground, and keep your centre of mass slightly in front of your back leg.”

 

“Make sure you kick with your foot completely flat,” Carl jumped in, turning Q to look at him. “Do you understand?”

 

Q started to nod when Jim grabbed him and turned him around again, “But make sure that your leg is slightly bent when you kick or you’ll seriously damage the knee.”

 

When he was twisted again, Q was sure he heard his neck crack and it took him a moment to realize that Andrew was the one talking to him. “But, again, don’t take too long and don’t ignore the noises you hear behind you. If the growl no longer echoes, the crocodile is too close and you need to start running again.”

 

The three men not actually naming the dangers that were waiting for him were helping Q delay an incoming panic attack, but the second they said ‘crocodile’, his mind wasted no time creating a picture of him slowly torn to pieces by the very hungry creature and when Andrew cracked his knuckles while getting ready to show him how to take down the door, he imagined that was how it sounded when his leg bone snapped and he bolted out the door.

 

He ran as fast as he could, climbing two steps at a time and throwing himself at every closed door that appeared before him. Nothing passed through his mind but the need to escape, so he was shocked when the last door that gave brought him out to clear blue sky, fresh air, and chirping birds.

 

“Hope you didn’t exhausted yourself.” Q jumped an entire foot back right in the hands of other guards that he did not see when he heard Precious’ voice, clutching his heart. “Don’t die when no one important can see you either; it will be bad for the lives of your little friends,” she added, forcing herself to smile as she turned towards the car.

 

“You’re sick,” Q said simply as he turned to follow her, shrugging off the guards that thought his little jog up the long flights of steps meant that he couldn’t walk for himself. “You’re sick and I  hope that, no matter the outcome today, you’ll lose as much as I will, if not more.”

 

They took the scenic route, Precious probably hoping to punish him for his insolence by rattling him up some more – and it worked. Although a normally common sight after such a strong and long storm, the stillness of the empty city alongside the many destroyed buildings made the feeling of impending doom that much more palpable and Q struggled not to fidget in the backseat. And yet, how could he not? There was the very big possibility that this was the last time he’d pass by any of the cafes, the last time he’d wonder if they were ever going to get an actual new movie in the small, fancy cinema they had, the last time he’d see anyone…

 

But he didn’t feel any regrets and, for the first time in forever, he was sure that his younger-self would not only feel proud of him, but also cheer him on whatever he was about to do that involved a crocodile he needed to dodge while also tearing down a door that was somewhere on the left side.

 

They picked up speed when they left the city, Precious’ mood obviously dampened by Q’s soft smile and they soon pulled up by the foot of a Mayan pyramid. Precious’ favourite Rolls Royce was waiting for her there, the woman hopping in it without sparing Q a second look and Andrew, Jim, and Carl did not dare to look him in the eyes as other guards marched him away.

 

He was led to another dungeon, the small door closing behind him as another, heavier one before him opened and he saw a large, stone corridor without a roof before him and he silently started to walk out, head held high despite his heart threatening to jump out of his chest.

 

“ _You have long since passed the point of no return,_ ” he told himself, clutching his fists by his side as he tried to seem unaffected even as he took a left turn and was greeted by the sight of many men and women sitting on top of the corridor, cheering and laughing. “ _You passed it but **they** can still be saved_ ,” he added when he caught a glimpse of James doing his best to ignore whatever the scarred man by his side was saying while R was nowhere in sight.

 

Q thought that James regretted using him but at the same time, maybe he was just upset that his life was in his hands and that he had failed whatever task he needed to complete. Well, he was going to show him that he was so much more than a pawn to be bedded and he was going to give R the opportunity to rub the fact that she had been right about James in his face for as long as she wanted.

 

Precious showed up just as he stopped a few feet away from the metal door that was there both to keep the horrors at bay and to further increase the victim’s fear. “My dear ladies and gentlemen,” she started, holding her hands up to silence the crowd. “It brings me no joy to welcome you all back to a new – hopefully long – sprint down _La Avenida de Muerte_ so soon after the last one, especially since someone so dear to me has to do it.” She wiped a non-existent tear from her eye, a few people mirroring her fake sadness. “But, the rules are clear and we couldn’t have gotten this far if I allowed myself to be ruled by my emotions, so he has to do it.”

 

“No, I have to do it because you’re holding my friends hostage, not because of the rules,” Q made sure to correct her as loudly as he could without his voice cracking, his frown lessening when his eyes finally found James’ surprised-filled blue ones. “So just open the bloody doors already and let’s get this over with.”

 

Precious narrowed her eyes and slowly shook her head as she snapped her fingers and the gates let out a loud screeching noise as they slowly opened, Q instantly covering his mouth and nose when an awful smell hit him – clearly not everything survived the very recently passed hurricane and Precious didn’t think to have a cleaning crew have a go before sending him in.

 

Well, he wasn’t to look what he hoped to be a gift horse in the mouth and he stepped through the gates even before they fully opened, stopping short of a sudden drop. He peeked over the edge and saw murky water and some very large logs that _moved_ and Q realized that he was expected to traverse the crocodile infested waters in order to reach the door on the opposite side of the relatively small pond.

 

“I’ll do the run in his place,” James shouted, Q turning around and seeing him being held back from the edge of the wall by three massive guards, the scared man talking with him for a moment before suddenly pulling out a gun and pointing it at Q’s head. “No!”

 

“Mister Blofeld, you will sit down,” Precious swiftly ordered.

 

But her voice fell on deaf ears and the man’s flashed him a twisted grin right before squeezing the trigger, Q deciding that facing hungry and possibly wounded crocodiles while he wasn’t bleeding gave him a greater chance at reaching the following ‘room’ without sporting a bullet wound and  bleeding all over the place.

 

His descent was anything but smooth and he tried to keep his wits about him even as he realized that his right lens had cracked and that his bloody hands were resting in the murky water, no doubt altering the hungry animals that lunch had arrived while a gunfight had erupted behind him.

 

He pushed himself back up on his feet and he closed his right eye to keep himself from getting disorientated and since there was no way of going _around_ the crocodiles that he could now clearly see making a beeline for him, he did the only logical thing that he could think of – he jumped on top of the closest one to him in hopes of using them as a bridge. The beast was still under him for a second, but then the world started to tilt and Q realized that the crocodile had begun to roll in an attempt to bring him back down to jaw level, but that might not happen as the second crocodile closest to him had lunched itself out of the water and was heading straight for from, his big mouth open.

 

Q pulled hard to the right in order to avoid the hungry creature, losing his eyesight completely as the murky water drenched his glasses. One of the tails hit his chest while he was mid-fall and all the air was knocked out of him as he was smacked backwards, Q thanking all the gods he remembered when he felt dry land under him. He didn’t sigh in relief quite yet because he could hear one of the crocodiles get out of the water and try as he might, he could do little more than sit upright and stare Death into its beady little eyes as the hungry crocodile headed directly towards him.

 

“I hope you end up a purse,” he muttered under his breath, also hoping that James and R would at least be given a quick death. But then the crocodile took a sharp turn to the left and crawled back into the water, turning his sights to one of his brethren that seemed to be wounded and Q was thankful to find out that he had regained enough of his strength to get back up on his feet and turn around before he could see the bloody feast.

 

He was happy to see that the new room was mostly water free, but he didn’t like how narrow it was, the holes in the ground, or the puddles of mostly dead scorpions, deducing the latter to be a direct result of the hurricane flooding the entire complex – which meant that he was expected to cross through a room full of deadly scorpions at one point and that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up because he doubted anyone actually made it out alive.

 

“Don’t take another step,” he heard James shout from behind and he turned to see the man throw a smoking gun on the ground before pulling him to his chest and giving him a brief tight hug. He then took a step back, taking his tie off and starting to wrap parts of it around Q’s hands. “It doesn’t look like Precious did anything to make this run harder than it already was other than not have it cleaned up after the storm, so I have to ask you to soldier through a bit of pain while we form a human arch so we can skip a few rooms. Although…” he trailed off and threw a pebble on the hole-covered ground, a spike shooting up. “Scratch that; human arch it is.”

 

Q had his doubts that the plan would work, expecting their feet to slide off the walls two steps into the room or for his hands to start hurting so bad that he’d let go, resulting in both of them falling to a very painful doom, but nothing of the sorts happened. He did start to shake halfway through the third room when he broke eye contact with James and saw two black masses pulsating under them. Were people seriously expected to crawl in there and make it out un-poisoned enough to keep running? There was no way—

 

“We’re almost at the end,” James promised, squeezing Q’s hands to get him to focus back on him. “Just a few more steps and then we’ll be able to gently slide down and then just jump over the fourth room which means that we’re practically halfway there.” Q didn’t know if he was telling the truth or not, but he needed to believe him. Especially since he peeked into the fourth room and saw a giant snake lazily swim around in circles.

 

There was no way around or over the 5th room, but after checking Q’s shoes, James assured him that everything will  be okay as long as he didn’t stay in one place for too long. This room was going to get heated from below so he was not allowed to trip or stop, James explained, or at least that’s what it did the last time he’d been in it.

 

Q stopped suddenly, tilting his head. “I don’t remember ever seeing you here.”

 

James clicked his tongue and tugged Q forward, steam starting to seep through the floor. “I don’t think you were born when I was fourteen. Now, what did I just said about constantly being on the moving?”

 

“I don’t really know how old you are to tell you if I was born or not,” Q pointed out, speeding up so he’d be shoulder to shoulder with James.

 

“I’m thirty-six.”

 

“Ah, well then I was four back then and still not on this island.” He tugged on his collar, beads of sweat rolling down his face. “Were you born on this island? Because I really don’t remember seeing someone like you on the island and why did El Huracan make you go through this?”

 

“One question at a time, Q,” James panted out, he himself picking up the pace as steam started to come out from his shoes. “I was born in Scotland—”

 

“What’s Scotland?”

 

“A part of the United King... It’s on the same island as that big clock you remember,” James explained, now breaking into a run. “Anyway, I was born there and through a long series of very interesting events – which I’d love to tell you all about after we get out of here,” he flashed Q a small smile and Q just stared at him because he really couldn’t believe that the man was hitting on him while they were slowly getting baked, “I ended up on this island together with Precious and I forced Huracan’s hand into letting us run for our freedom.”

 

Q felt a bit more hopeful. “So this run can be completed?”

 

“Not really,” James muttered, throwing himself against the door just as his shoes caught fire, pushing Q to his chest as he pulled out a handgun. “Precious and I cheated.” He moved his free hand over Q’s exposed ear and squeezed the gun’s trigger, something heavy hitting the ground close to them with a loud thump. “And we still are.” He got up and pulled Q to his feet, cupping his chin to keep him looking at him. “You look like you like cats no matter their size or intentions, so best to not look back. Instead, look in front and tell me what you see.”

 

Q closed his right one and squinted his left one. “Floating leaves?” He asked and then he remembered what Carl said. “Wait, if this place wouldn’t have been affected, there would be no leaves to float and the coast would appear to be clear and if you hadn’t shot whatever you’re not letting me see, something would be making a kind of noise that would have made us run where it appeared to be safe which means that we’d run straight into the things that make the leaves appear to float.”

 

James looked very proud as he walked both of them up to the floating leaves, revealing one of the many razor-sharp wires that crisscrossed the room. “Let’s be really careful with these; they’re rusty and I don’t think anyone would be willing to provide either one of us with an anti-tetanus shot.”

 

It took them quite a long time to get through to the end but while Q did a little happy dance, James looked worried. He kept looking up while Q danced, clearly checking the edges of the walls to make sure that they were still alone and when Q made to go into the next room, eager to get this whole think over with and a lot more confident in a positive outcome now that he knew most of the dangers had been thwarted by the weather as well as because James was by his side, he grabbed his hand and stopped him, putting his fingers over Q’s lips and pushing his ear against the rusted door.

 

“Of course it would still be working,” James grumbled as he pulled open the door and his shoulders slumped at the sight of three enormous grindstones spinning to the left side of the room. “I had hoped that the tank of honey in the other room had spilled over into this one.”

 

Q frowned. “Are there hungry bears two rooms over if there’s honey in the next one?”

 

James’ looked grim while checking out his guns. “Bears wouldn’t be a problem now that I have this. But no, El Huracan went with something worse: thousands upon thousands of ants.” He slumped against the opened door and slid down, fixing a spot somewhere on the edge of the wall and started to glared at it. “Precious wasn’t evil,” he said after Q slumped next to him. “She was stubborn and her nose was so up high in the air that I was surprised she didn’t suffocate, but she was simply acting up.”

 

Not really knowing what to say to something like that, Q simply patted James’ back and focused on their current predicament. “I’m thinking that if both the honey room and the ant room are exposed, there’s a high possibility that the following tasks mixed together to become a single horrendous one.”

 

James suffering sigh meant that he was right. “Let’s keep moving. I have a feeling that we won’t be alone for long.” He remained crouched down and turned with his back to Q. “Hop on and hold tight,” he instructed, but Q ignored him and started to gather large rocks. “Q, we don’t—”

 

“If we block the mechanism, we will,” Q interrupted him, sticking his tongue out and squinting his good eye once again as he struggled to get the rocks between the millstones – and failing miserably, but James soon joined him and since the man not only had actual muscles but was good at aiming, the mechanism came to a screeching halt and both of them took off running like the devil himself was on their tail.

 

The rusty door opened to reveal a sturdy ledge and a sudden drop, James starting to undress without saying anything, but Q peeked down and frowned. The hurricane had done exactly what he had speculated and even more, breaking the wall between the two rooms to create one giant one that had a big log floating in the middle alongside clumps of ants that seemed to be on a suicide mission as they tried to submerge themselves to reach the golden honey at the bottom.

 

James didn’t really plan on blindly diving in that, did he? A quick glance in James’ direction – who was now unzipping his trousers very slowly – told him that was exactly what he planned on doing and how was he still alive at this age if what Precious had told him about James being a spy was true and he acted like this during all his missions.

 

“Maybe come over here and look before you do anything else?” Q asked, doing his very best not to stare or remember the pleasant hours they spent together. “I mean, if you want to crack open your skull on that log under us, you are free do to so, but I would much rather you didn’t.”

 

“I was going to look,” James protested, his face giving away the fact that he really wasn’t going to do that. “We still have to jump on the log though, so…” He trailed off and swept Q off his feet, holding him bridal style. “I’ve done this in the past multiple times, so don’t worry.”

 

Q arched his left eyebrow. “You jumped on a floating log with—”

 

“Not this exactly, but it was very similar,” James interrupted, already halfway to the log before Q remembered to start screaming.

 

He continued to scream even after they landed and the only way that James could think of shutting him up – other than dropping him or slapping him – was to kiss him. A quick, rough kiss, their teeth bumping into each other, but still human contact that assured him that he was still alive and still safe – or as safe as he could be while on this rat run, but at least he wasn’t being bitten by any hungry ants.

 

“I can see how you get so many people to fall for you,” Q muttered against James’ lips, forcing himself to open his eyes, his heart skipping a beat when he saw the intensity in James’ blue ones. “You’ll drown me.”

 

James rested their foreheads together and carefully lowered Q back on the log. “I drink all the water around us before I let that happen.” He hugged Q tightly, shushing him when he heard a whimper. “Not now, darling. We can’t afford it; not when we’re this close.”

 

Nodding, Q took a deep breath and the two were on the move again, James walking ahead of him, holding his hand tightly. Q almost slipped twice and James kept hitting his bare chest to kill the ants that had started to bite him, hissing all type of curses under his breath between asking Q if he was okay and if he was lying to him about being okay, promising to make the bite marks the ants left bigger if he saw any when they were safe and far away from this island.

 

A new kind of fear struck Q then. This island was, for all the bad things that were happening on it and all the evil people that inhabited it, everything he knew. Actually, should he even be worrying about what will happen when they get off the island instead of what will happen if they finished this run in one piece? Before James jumped in, he was running for their freedom and his life, but will happen now that the rules were broken? Was R still alive? He didn’t see her when he started, so did Precious let that scarred man kill her because he didn’t stand there to take a bullet so James could take his place?

 

“Q,” James said warningly, tugging him on the edge of the log by his side, pinching his cheek. “See that dome up ahead?” Q glared at him before nodding, rubbing his cheek – for all his nagging about ants biting him, James didn’t seem to care when he was the one leaving a mark behind. “That’s our last stop.”

 

“So that’s where the huge, hungry crocodile and the hidden door that we have to break down are,” Q concluded, looking around the dome for a way in. “But I don’t see how we can get inside.”

 

James pointed down. “The door we’re supposed to go through is submerged, but hopefully the room is otherwise unaffected or else we have no way out of here.”

 

“We can try to backtrack and hope the fighting chased everyone away from the walls?” Q offered, trying to find a way to climb out not only of this hole, but also out of the run in general, regretting that it didn’t cross their minds to take some of that razor-sharp wire as tetanus was preferred to ending up as a crocodile’s entrée.

 

James clicked his tongue, busying himself with unzipping his trousers. “Precious had Blofeld – the man that tried to kill you and the real reason I came to this island – subdued the second you took off, so there was no fight to distract anyone and since I’ve counted at least 46 hidden cameras that still worked, I can guarantee you that we won’t be able to get out of here by simply turning around.”

 

Q grabbed on to James’ arm when he realized what the man was planning to do. “Why are you dead set on taking a dip in this water?”

 

“The way the thing in there was fed back when I was a child was through a hatch on the topside of the dome and I’m going to make sure that it’s safe to go over and that we can actually open it,” James explained, but Q just held on tighter to his arm.

 

“You’re going to be incredibly stupid and get yourself killed,” Q accused him, James’ sheepish smile not doing anything to calm down his nerves. “Obviously your mind is not your strong suit since you did nothing to get back on Precious’ side after you found out she was the ruler, so where you’re going, I’m going.”

 

“Q—”

 

“Bond, where you’re going, I’m going, so just drop it,” Q hissed at him, trying to unbutton his jacket with just one hand.

 

Sighing in clear frustration and annoyance, James did the smart thing of keeping his mouth shut and just focus on helping Q undress. There was nothing sensual about Q’s clothes coming off this time, James looking stone-cold as Q dropped his trousers to reveal a tight pair of boxers and Q’s face did not turn red.  Once both were down to their pants, James took Q’s glasses off his nose and chucked them in the water before jumping in, dragging Q in with him.

 

Though Q had kept his mouth shut, he still ended up getting a taste of the disgusting water, the putrid smell that it had making him tear up. But he didn’t allow himself to get distracted by their task at hand, his gut instinct telling him that they both needed to get out of the water as fast as possible and sure enough, after James had pulled him out of the water and they braved a look behind, a huge fin disappear back under the dirty water.

 

Q felt his legs go weak, but James caught him before he could fall. This place was too far away from the ocean for the shark to have gotten here on its own because the city that still existed outside the castle proved that the hurricane had been too mild for that to happen. So that meant that the shark had been put there. “It’s best if I just don’t think about it, right?” Q asked, flinching every time water splashed on him, letting out a shaky sigh when James nodded. “I wish I could wake up now.”

 

“This nightmare will be over soon, darling,” James promised, pushing his lips against Q’s ear before he very carefully started to move around, looking for the stairs that lead to the hatch on top of the dome.

 

Stairs found – and footing almost lost right away because of the slime that had formed on top of them – Q watched with his heart in his throat as James opened the hatch and then quickly turned his head away, covering his mouth and nose as he struggled not to gag because of the putrid smell that hit him straight on.

 

“Christ, I hope the crocodile is what died in here,” James said, fully opening the hatch to let the room air out as much as possible before they had to go in and slumped next to Q, throwing his arm around his shoulders. “You did an excellent job up until now with everything, darling, but I’ll need you to do exactly as I say and not question what I say for a few more minutes.”

 

Q narrowed his eyes, getting the very distinct feeling that James was planning on doing something incredibly stupid. Or was he afraid that James will abandon him here? He touched his chest like he was expecting his heart what it thought and James must have also been a mind reader on top of a spy because his arms slipped from his shoulders to his middle and hugged him tight.

 

“No matter how many times I got betrayed by those who were supposed to be my allies and friends, as well as by those who I offered my heart to on a silver platter, I never did that to someone.” His voice soft and warm despite the painful thing he said, the raw pain in his eyes making him look like the most vulnerable creature on earth. “So I won’t abandon you here, darling. I won’t crush your heart more than I already did and I promise that I will spend the rest of my life making things up to you if I have to.”

 

Q felt his eyes start to sting and he rubbed at them furiously. “I’m not yet sure that I’m not a complete moron like Precious surely thinks me to be, but take me to this Big Ben you think I’m remembering and I’ll forgive you.”

 

“Everything you ask of me and more, if you so wish it,” James whispered in his ear, kissing his temple before taking his left hand in his and starting to unwrap his tine. “I’ll need this and I’ll need you to stay right where you are.”

 

Biting his lip, Q looked at James throwing the blood-soaked cloth in the room bellow and then pulled back just in time to avoid getting his arm snapped off by the very much alive – and incredibly hungry – jumping crocodile. Worried that he had seen more than he thought humanly possible of the animal, Q got up and tugged James away from the opened hatch and he did it just in time to save him as the crocodile was a lot smarter than initially thought because he had figured that building enough memento and launching himself towards the base of the dome will result in it getting out.

 

And ‘huge’ did not do justice to the beast, the rest of the dome quickly starting to crack and give under its weight while it trashed around, snapping his large jaws, and forcing James and Q to jump in the shark infested waters in order to avoid getting eaten. The crocodile quickly followed them in and while James rushed to get back to what was left of the dome, Q sat still and stared straight at him, remembering how the other – much smaller – crocodile had backed away from him.

 

“Move it!” James started to shout when he realized what was happening. “Q, move it! Get out of the water already! The animal repellent you had on got washed off and that thing is too big to be affected by it anyway!”

 

“What?”

 

“Just swim,” James growled right in his ear, grabbing his arm and starting to kick the water as fast and as hard as he could, veering to the right in a desperate attempt to dodge the crocodile.

 

Luckily for them, the shark was also heading towards them without them knowing, so its head ended up in the crocodile’s mouth, distracting it long enough for them to get back on dry land. Q tried to get a better look inside the room and figure where it would be for the best to jump down, but James was obviously the gambling kind of person because he simply threw Q over his shoulder and jumped down blindly, getting the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands cut – but no one was going to really complain about that because he had missed the crooked steel pole just two inches to their left.

 

James ran around the room with his hand on the wall and a quiet Q – who was looking upward to make sure that the crocodile wouldn’t slip back in – still thrown over his shoulder, cursing under his breath when he was forced to do the circuit a second and then a third time because he couldn’t find the door and it was really terrifying to be able to read actual fear and desperation on the man’s face.

 

“If they removed it—”

 

“They didn’t,” Q intervened in an attempt to calm James down.

 

“But if they did,” James insisted, running his hand up and down Q’s back to calm himself down more than anything, “then we lost because I don’t have any explosives one me and that crocodile will not be satisfied with the shark for too long.”

 

Given everything that the guards had done for him and the amount of time they had spent trying to teach him how to break down a door, Q highly doubted that was the case because for all the guards were, he was sure that sadists was not on that list. “We’ll find it,” Q reassured him, pushing his face in James’ back and hugging him, trying really hard not to think of their current state of undress. “Put me down and let’s both look for it.” James very carefully put him back on the ground and Q had to wriggle his hand free from his hold. “You take left and I’ll take right.”

 

“Meet in the middle and sleep together tonight?”

 

Q chuckled, caressing James’ face with the back of his hand. “Whatever you want as long as we’re not in this room or in the stomach of an animal. Your teeth are the only ones I want to leave marks on my body.”

 

James did not pass on that offer and, with a low growl that sent chills of pleasure down Q’s spine, sank his teeth in the side of his neck and then began to lick and gently suck where he had bitten him, trailing little kisses up his neck and chin, stopping just short of his lips. “Your wish is my command.” He lowered his head with the clear intention of nibbling some more on him but Q tutted and pulled away. “Let’s find bloody door.”

 

Q waited for James to put his hand on the wall so he could place his just below and then both of them started to slowly and silently move around the room. It felt like ages passed before Q left a slight breeze brush against his fingers – in reality, he’d only taken four steps away from where he had started so maybe like two minutes had passed – and when he started to laugh in pure relief, James was right there to move him away so he could kick down the door.

 

That took longer than actually finding it, James ending up with a very visible limp by the time the door finally gave in, revealing a long slide. “I’ll go first and if I don’t scream in pain, come after me.”

 

With a hesitant nod and a bite of his lower lip, Q watched James disappeared down the slide, holding his breath. Once he was alone, breathing became harder and he realized that his heart was beating so hard and so fast in his chest that it was actually hurting him. How many of the chewed up skeletons he had done his best to ignore up until now had died of fear? How many others had died on their way?

 

“It’s safe and R is here with a boat!” James’ shout broke through the cascade of questions that were drowning his mind. “Be careful how you slide down, though; it’s a bit bumpy and I didn’t like how it rattled in some places.”

 

Instructions damned because he just wanted to get out of there as fast as humanly possible, Q threw himself down the slide headfirst, grunting whenever he bumped into walls and gasping whenever he freefell until he eventually landed right on top of James who wrapped his arms around him, picked him up bridal-style, and then jumped in a small motorboat.

 

“That wasn’t being safe,” R was scolding him while also trying to drag him in her own arms and drape a blanket around him. “Give him here,” she hissed at James and then smiled triumphantly when Q threw himself in her arms. “It’s alright, Q; Precious let me go as well as gave your lover-boy what he really wanted.”

 

Q realized only then that someone else was in the boat with them and he was startled to find the scared man glaring at him, James looking more than pleased with the outcome. “I guess Precious wasn’t that bad in the end,” Q said carefully, better covering himself with the blanket that kept slipping off his shoulders. “Mister Bond, will you still take us to Big Ben?”

 

James’ eyebrows knitted in confusion. “Mister Bond? What…? Oh.” Whatever dawned on James got him to move next to Q and put his arm around his middle and kissed his shoulder that refused to stay covered. “Darling, it’s going to be a long and rough ride back to the mainland, so let’s talk about what we both want from each other.”

 

R groaned and pretended to gag, but Q smiled and snuggled closer to James. He supposed that he should feel terrified that they were going to brave through a man-made storm on a little boat – which they shared with someone that looked like he was willing to give his soul to kill them in the slowest and most painful way possible – to reach a land that might as well be nothing more than another _La Avenida de Muerte_ , but Q felt fearless and like he could take whatever the world spat at him because R and James were by his side.  

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are love.


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